f 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 






't^M. 



{UNITED' STATES OF AMERICA.} 



\> 



DIUTURNITYs 



OR THE 



COMPARATIYE AGE OF THE WORLD, 



SHOWING THAT THE HUMAN BACE IS IN 



THE INFANCY OF ITS BEING-, 



AND DEMONSTRATING 



A SEASONABLE AND RATIONAL WORLD, 



IMMENSE FUTURE DURATION. 





~ J>- 

By Rev. RiTAbbey. 
11 




/° CINCINNATI: 
PPLEGATE & COMPANY 

1866, 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S66, by 

Ret. RICHARD ABBEY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Middle 

District of Tennessee. 



DEDICATION. 



To my Little Grandsons, Abbey, Johnny, and Lenny : 

My Dear Children — I dedicate this book to you. You 
are now little boys, of the ages of five to ten years, and 
know but little of the labors in which you have seen me so 
constantly engaged, in my study, every evening and leisure 
hour. A few times I have attempted to explain to you 
that I was writing a book, but you have only a partial con- 
ception of it. I humbly pray Almighty Grod that he may 
bless you with health and wisdom, that in riper years you 
may not only study and comprehend these thoughts profit- 
ably, but improve upon them and learn wisdom. And I 
confidently expect that your early dedication to God, whose 
providence I have herein, in a small degree, attempted to 
explain, will stimulate you to higher and still higher 
thoughts of his ways, and to closer and still closer devo- 
tion to his service. 

Your affectionate grandfather, 

K. Abbey. 

Nashville, Tenn., March, 1866. 

(Hi) 



CONTENTS 



SECTION FIRST. 

PAGB 

Illustrating some Natural and Practical Points of Relation 
and Affinity between Man and his Earthly Residence 13 

Chapter 1. A cursory View of the Point we now occupy as to 

the Past, the Present, and the Future 15 

2. God is Infinitely Wise and Good. This is the True 

and Only Basis of all Practical Reasoning on 
Nature and Providence 19 

3. God being Infinitely Wise and Good, there is noth- 

ing Made in Vain, but every thing for an Ade- 
quate Purpose 23 

4. Respecting the Adamic Curse and some of its Im- 

mediate Effects 25 

5. Concerning the Restoration and the Means by 

which it was to be Effected 27 

6. The Final Triumph of Christ in the Simple Work- 

ings of the Christian Religion will be absolutely 
Completed 28 

7. The Natural Advancement of the World and of Re- 

ligion Considered 32 

8. The Natural Tendency of Religion is to Increase... 35 

9. Concerning the Natural Process by which Children 

Inherit Piety 38 

10. Concerning the Comparative Age of the World — 

Whether it is Old or Young 42 

11. Refutation of some of the Popular Sentiments re- 

specting the Comparative Age of the World 44 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

Chapter 12. A Philosophers Rule by which the Comparative 
Age of the World may be so far Ascertained as to 
Determine that this Age belongs to its Infancy. 46 

13. Concerning the Vast Amount of Undiscovered Na- 
ture 48 

SECTION SECOND. 

On the Physical Aspects of the "World 53 

Chapter 14. Capacity proves Design — The Rule applied to the 

World and its Furniture 55 

15. The Earth and its great Store-houses are as yet al- 

most wholly Undiscovered 58 

16. Concerning Rocks, Hills, and Deserts — Their Con- 

dition and Design 61 

17. Some Practical Observations on Isaiah xl: 4 04 

18. Concerning the Present Condition of Forests and 

Unused Lands compared with their Evident De- 
sign 67 

19. An Inquiry respecting the Polar Regions 68 

20. An Inquiry respecting the Present Condition of 

Mineralogy 72 

21. Concerning Caves and the Light they throw on the 

Subject 75 

22. An Inquiry Relating to Fossil Coal 81 

23. Concerning Salt, its Great Quantities, Practical 

Uses, etc 83 

24. Concerning Mineral Waters — Their Quantities, 

Kinds, and Uses 85 

25. Concerning Hot Springs and other Underground 

Phenomena 87 

26. An Inquiry respecting Earthquakes, their Design, 

etc 89 

27. Respecting Agriculture, its Present Condition, etc. 91 

28. There is Evident Defect in the Present System of 

Agriculture 94 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

Chapter 29. Concerning Rain, and how far Science may Con- 
trol it 96 

30. Concerning Medicine — The Small Discoveries made 

in this Department 98 

31. The Mechanic Arts are in a Crude Beginning State 99 

32. Concerning the Durability of Building Material — 

The Small Discoveries we have made in it 101 

83. Concerning Oil, with Conjectures as to the Proba- 
ble Supply, Uses, etc 103 

CTION THIRD. 

On tee Intellectual Aspects of the World 105 

Chapter 34. What is the Proper Mission and End of Science ?... 107 

35. Concerning the Philosophic Congruity between 

Man and the World 110 

36. Concerning Money — Its Philosophy and Uses 113 

37. Concerning the Intercommunication of Ideas Gen- 

erally and the Means by which it is done 115 

38. Concerning the Office and End of Human Language 118 

39. Concerning Acoustics — Its immense Natural Im- 

portance, and our Great Lack of Knowledge re- 
specting it 124 

40. Concerning Writing — Is it probable the Most 

Proper Mode of Writing is Discovered? 126 

41. Concerning Longevity, Ancient and Modern — 

Which is the Rule and which the Exception?... 129 

42. Concerning Wild Animals — Their Wildness is 

merely Temporary and Incidental 134 

43. Concerning the Pre-Adamite Earth, considered in 

reference to its most Natural and Probable Rela- 
tion to the Earth in its Present Form 138 

SECTION FOURTH. 
On the Moral and Religious Aspects op the World.. 145 

Chapter 44. Some Plain and Unmistakable Bible Teachings on 

the Sinless Period 147 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Chapter 45. Concerning Popular Errors respecting the Sinless 

Period and of all Long Periods 151 

46. The Undertaking of Christ in our Present Relig- 

ious System was the Thorough and Complete 
Renovation and Christianization of Mankind... 154 

47. A Brief View of the Present State of Religion in 

the World.. 157 

48. Concerning Superstition and Witchcraft 159 

49. Concerning the State and Influence of Popular 

Prejudice 164 

50. The Popular Misunderstanding of the Scriptures 

in the best portions of Society shows their com- 
parative Recent Introduction 166 

51. Moral Philosophy is in its Crudest and Most Ini- 

tiatory State 168 

52. Concerning the Present State of Religious Litera- 

ture — What it is and what it must be 170 

53. Concerning the Agency and Necessity of Litera- 

ture in the Evangelization of the World 176 

64. Concerning Juvenile Conversion — What it is and 

what it must be ~ + .- ..~..~. 178 

65. Concerning the very great Injury the World Re- 

ceives by the Uniform Failures in the Govern- 
ment of Infants 181 

66. Concerning Popular Views of Religion 188 

67. The Conventional Laws of Society and the Rules 

of the Decalogue Contrasted 192 

68. An Inside View of Popular Honesty 194 

69. Concerning Civilization, and its Testimony as to 

the Progress the World has made in its Natural 
Course 195 

60. Concerning Hypocrisy and Inferences to be Drawn 

therefrom 198 

61. Concerning the Practical Use and Benefit of the 

Moral Law 200 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

Chapter 62. Concerning the Irregularity of the Course of Re- 
ligious Progress 204 

63. Concerning the Remarkable Successes and Fail- 

ures of the Gospel 208 

64. Concerning Civil Government — Whether it is De- 

signed to be Permanent, and what are its Func- 
tions and Uses 216 

65. Concerning Domestic Science — Its Philosophy and 

Compensation 221 

66. Concerning War, and to what Comparative Period 

in Human Progress it Naturally belongs 228 

67. Concerning Natural Theology 230 

68. Concerning the Morals of Cities as Types and 

Models of the World 234 

69. Concerning the Dark Ages, and its relation to 

other Periods, particularly the Future 236 

70. Concerning Ecclesiastical History — Of what is it 

a History 239 

71. Concerning Mental Progress — An Inquiry into the 

Absolute Powers of the Mental Const! tution 243 

72. Concerning Animal Magnetism — What is it? 248 

73. Concerning Astronomy — The Newness of the Sci- 

ence, with Inferences Deducible therefrom 253 

74. Concerning Time and Space, and the Deficiency of * 

our Knowledge respecting them 256 

75. Concerning Light and Vision — The Little we Know 

in comparison with what is Certainly or Proba- 
bly within our reach 259 

76. Concerning Electricity — Possibility of its Discov- 

ery and Practical Use 262 

SECTION FIFTH. 
On the Future Improved and Blissful State of the World 267 

Chapter 77. Concerning the Natural Work and Office of Human 

Religion — Its Theater and its End 269 



X CONTENTS, 

PAGE 

Chapter 78. Are there Few that be Saved?— Luke xiii: 23 273 

79. Concerning the Sinless Period of the World, Im- 

properly Called a Millennium — Its Philosophy 
and Naturalness 276 

80. Concerning the Second Coming of Christ — A De- 

murrer to some Recent Theories 286 

81. Concerning the Philosophy and Sufficiency of the 

Christian Religion as it now is 302 

82. Concerning the Attempted Degradation of Jehovah 

to an Earthly Emperorship — A Glance at its 
Rationale 307 

83. My Kingdom is not of this World 315 

84. This same Jesus which is Taken from you into 

Heaven, shall so Come in Like Manner as ye 
have seen Him go into Heaven — Acts i: 11 319 

85. Human Advancement must be supposed to be 

Finally Equal to the Natural Capacity for it 323 

86. On the Interpretation of Prophecy 329 

87. Concerning the Resurrection and the End of the 

World 336 

88. Concerning the Final and Glorious Destiny of this 

World... 347 



EXORDIUM 



The drift of the times is far too sensational. "We need 
more sobriety, more reason, and less fancy and imagery. 
Pictures of the marvelous are so easily drawn that we need 
not pay men for manufacturing them. Romance is cheap; 
and even rhetoric is sold by the teacher at a fair value. 
Poetry is very good in its place ; but it ought not to usurp 
the territory of others. The age in which we live, espe- 
cially among the religious and the religiously inclined, is 
already too imaginative, too romantic, too extravagant, too 
enthusiastic, too fanatic, too Utopian. We want less writ- 
ing and more thinking, less fancy and more reality, less 
idealism and more philosophy, less romance and more truth. 
It is not enough that a book be readable. Don Quixote 
has played his part. Literature, especially on religious sub- 
jects, undertaking to demonstrate the great truths of God 
and morals, ought to be free from fiction and somnambu- 
lism; manufacturers of gossip and sensation ought to be 
suspected prima facia; and rhetoric, oriental phraseology, 
and mystic verbiage, and paintings of the marvelous ought 
not to be deemed sufficient to entitle them to public confi- 
dence. 

In these chapters the author has had a different sort of 

(») 



Xll EXORDIUM. 

labor to perforin than to tickle the fancy and excite the 
imagination. Truth and Reason have been his instruments. 
This world is held to be reasonable, rational, sensible, and 
eminently harmonious and consistent. The reader is invited 
to a plain repast, served in a plain way. The entertainment 
is for his sober reason. He is asked to see, to think, and 
to admire, rather than to gaze, to marvel, and to wonder. 

I hold the doctrine of Millennium, in all the shapes and 
phases in which I have seen it stated, to be a most danger- 
ous form of infidelity, though I must confess that many 
who hold it are by no means aware of this. Indeed, many 
are among the most pious and useful Christians. Indeed, 
further, most of the objections I have seen against it, not 
being directed against the thing, but some particular phases 
of it, make concessions in its favor which are utterly sub- 
versive to the Christian religion. 

They tell us that millennium writers do n't know when 
the millennium will set in; it might happen at any time, 
and that our business is to let their calculations alone and 
get ready for it. It may happen at any time. 

On the contrary, I hold that there is and can be no such 
thing, neither now nor ever; that if a millennium and a 
human second-coming can happen at all, then the Christian 
religion is both a falsehood and a failure. 

And what we arc to do, or can do, to get ready for such 
an event, should such a thing be possible, I can not com- 
prehend, nor have I ever heard any one attempt to explain 
it. I know of no religious preparation we can make, ex- 
cept to live and die right and assist others to do the same. 



DITTTTJIlIISriTY. 



SECTION FIRST. 



Before bringing forward the Physical and Moral Testi- 
mony designed to be advanced in this argument, it is need- 
ful to prepare the way by a few chapters of plain but im- 
portant considerations respecting some points of relationship 
between the Maker, the World, and the inhabitants thereof. 
The unreasoning notion of wrapping up the course of time 
and humanity, and of circumscribing the sweep of earthly 
destiny within the narrow precincts of sixty or seventy cen- 
turies, is far too common. There is at least a reasonable 
relationship in providential things. The system we famil- 
iarly call the World has a beginning, a course, and a ra- 
tionale. 

(13) 



CHAPTER I. 

A CURSORY VIEW OF THE POINT WE NOW OCCUPY AS TO THE 
PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE. 

We are naturally inclined, and our circumstances and 
condition strongly prompt us, to take very restricted views 
and imbibe superficial notions of the depth and magnitude 
of the great course and sweep of the divine procedure in 
administering the affairs of our world, both in its natural 
and moral aspects. Occupying, as we do, each of us, but a 
brief point in periodicity, as we appear upon and pass over 
the stage of life in successive generations, and then having 
our attention centered chiefly upon the scenes immediately 
before us, we almost lose sight, in the dim distance, of 
things of the greatest moment. While 

" distance lends enchantment to the "view, " 

it generally hinders, if it does not oftentimes wholly ob- 
struct, philosophic research. 

And even history much resembles a landscape view. Ob- 
jects and facts at the remove of a few years lessen in their 
bulk greatly, while those a few centuries off stand in little 
clusters away in the dim distance. A little spreading oak 
near you is larger and fills more of the eye than the mount- 
ain whose azure peak rises on the other side of the land- 
scape. Yet the men who lived a thousand years ago, or 
those beyond the flood, experienced all the deep interest, 
and marked all the anxious solicitude in the extensive va- 
riety and individuality of separate years and days and 

(15) 



16 DIUTURNITY. 

hours; their disappointments, their good and bad fortune, 
as well as their separate and various individual relationship, 
were all spread out before them, each in its separate, sev- 
eral position, and each possessing its individual relation- 
ship and peculiar interest. But the view we take of these 
things is very different. The events of a whole year, or of 
a hundred years, are often thrown into a general mass, with 
little or no separate individuality of interest, aad we see 
them only in a few convenient hillocks. Persons are nearly 
or quite cotemporary who lived a hundred years apart, and 
even geography is gathered together at a few convenient 
points. 

Thus we attach undue importance to the things which 
stand nearest us. The age in which we live is, in our esti- 
mation, far more important than any other. Now, every 
thing has ripened, or is fast ripening, into the most import- 
ant results. This is the culminating period. Science is at 
or near its acme. The arts have reached very nearly or 
quite the line of perfectness. Every thing is mature or is 
fast maturing. 

Nor do we rest these things upon mere fancy and imag- 
ination. We reason and prove as we go. See how we are 
in advance of our fathers! Look at the high condition of 
the arts and sciences ! See our inventions and perfection in 
motive power — of railroads, navigation, and many other use- 
ful things ! The men who lived before us had not discov- 
ered the vast and important uses to which the earth and 
its properties could be subjected. They had not discovered 
America; and now look at its countless towns and cities, 
and its rich and ripening farm-fields. They had not even 
discovered Africa, save a few border patches; but now the 
source of the Niger is made to wheel into the ranks of 
geography. Look at Australia, California, the Sandwich 
Islands, and the far East, and compare their condition with 
what they were only half a century ago. 

And notice the perfection in telegraphing; improvements 



17 

in agriculture: look at geological research; at printing; at 
artistic printing and lithography ; at the discovery of sub- 
terranean lakes of pure oil, etc., etc. 

And, besides the vast improvements and perfections in 
arts and science, look at the moral and religious condition 
of the world. Missionaries have been sent to and have la- 
bored in every main-land and every island of the sea. Far- 
off Africa has been cited to Christ and exhorted to holiness. 
Many millions of copies of the Bible have been printed and 
circulated in all lands; its text has been scrutinized more 
carefully, or at least more critically, than in former ages, 
and its doctrines are therefore better understood, and conse- 
quently more highly appreciated. Biblical science and ec- 
clesiastical philosophy were never so well understood as they 
are now. 

So that our present stand-point is one of great if not uni- 
versal corvergence. We live in the great focal center of 
human progress. We conclude that human advancement 
has reached almost the very topmost round of the ladder. 
We have reached so far that surely there is not much be- 
yond. 

Such reasoning as this is inconclusive and unsatisfactory. 
However far it may be carried as matter of mere historic 
truth, and to whatever particular things it may be applied, 
there being no common standard nor rule of human per- 
fectability, nor natural maturity with which to compare 
these facts, and by which to determine their character, the 
argument amounts to nothing, or nearly nothing. They 
prove that human affairs are still progressing. But whether 
they have marked one-half, or one-thousandth part, or one 
stride in a million of the great course of time, they determ- 
ine nothing. By this kind of argument we determine that 
human improvement continues; that the world and its af- 
fairs have not stopped, nor turned back upon their axes; 
that experience still develops moral, intellectual, and scien- 
tific truth. 

2 



18 DITJTTTRNITY. 

If you were to go back to the' people who lived ten, a 
hundred, a thousand, or two or five thousand years ago, you 
would find them reasoning in the very same way, and form- 
ing the very same conclusions. They, too, had made great 
improvements upon the past, and saw every thing fast reach- 
ing maturity. We must find some other mode of reasoning. 
Reasoning without a base-line is not reasoning. Determin- 
ing without an axiom determines nothing. 

By observing the simple but sure utterances of nature, 
we have ascertained some of Grod's laws respecting what we 
call science, with unmistakable certainty. But what pro- 
portion of the regions of science we have actually explored, 
who can tell? We have entered upon the threshold, and 
set foot upon the margin; but where the other side is, who 
has ascertained? 

The discovery of the mariner's compass, and of a conti- 
nent in the West, settled nearly all principles in nautical 
science; and yet the first masters of the seas can not tell 
the character nor the use of the Gulf Stream, nor why or 
wherefore the tide rises. The plow which Cincinnatus drove 
twenty-three hundred years ago was the perfection of agri- 
cultural science and of that class of labor-saving machinery ; 
and yet we have not, to this day, discovered a rule by which 
to determine poor land from rich; nor even have we ascer- 
tained whether indeed there is absolutely any such dis- 
tinction. 

In ecclesiastical science and theology, Luther was un- 
questionably far ahead of his race and his age ; and he 
opened up the Bible as it had not been read before. And 
yet at this day it is by no means a settled matter among 
theologians what and where the Church is, nor how it is 
to be identified, entered, or governed. 

We must reason otherwise. We must find a fixed and 
certain base-line from which to reason. Can we do so? 



GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD. 19 



CHAPTEE II. 

GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD — THIS IS THE TRUE AND 
ONLY BASIS OF ALL PRACTICAL REASONING ON NATURE 
AND PROVIDENCE. 

The infinite wisdom and goodness of God are settled 
axioms. They are not latent principles which may be 
brought into exercise, but active characteristics which are 
certainly in operation always and in all places. It follows 
then, manifestly, that God has made nothing in vain; 
that every thing has a purpose and an adaptation. And 
not only has every thing, a purpose and an adaptation, but 
every thing in creation has an infinitely wise adaptation and 
an infinitely good purpose. 

This means, in other words, that the earth, with its nat- 
ural properties and laws, as a dwelling-place for mankind, 
is arranged and adapted, in all its parts and possible rela- 
tions and combinations, so as to answer the end in view in 
the best possible way, and to the greatest possible extent. 
God has made nothing in vain. There is in creation no un- 
necessary outlay of either mind or means. That is, every 
thing was made and arranged for something. Nothing was 
made for nothing. Not a leaf, not a vapor, not a pebble, 
not a law but has a purpose and an adaptation under God's 
wisdom and goodness. 

The nature and uses of most of the laws and properties 
of the earth, such of them as we have discovered, are easily 
seen and understood; and we certainly do not know of any 
thing that is useless. Thousands of the properties, laws, 
and relations of the earth have been discovered since we 



20 DIUTURNITY. 

have been living upon it, and in almost every instance their 
usefulness, to some extent at least, has been seen. 

To suppose that God lias made any thing without a wise 
and benevolent motive, is to suppose there was some lack 
of either wisdom or goodness in the production. But how 
far we, in the present age of the world, may be able to see 
and understand fully the usefulness of each particular piece 
of the earth's furniture, as far as we may have discovered 
them, is one thing ; and how far such usefulness may really 
exist, is perhaps quite another. It is certain we know of 
nothing intended to produce unhappiness. 

The senses are channels through which, to a great extent, 
happiness and unhappiness are transmitted. Food is essen- 
tial for the sustenance of the body; but it is by no means 
necessary, so far as we know, that food should have a pleas- 
urable taste; that its proper use should be attended with 
pleasurable sensations; and that men should be capable of 
choosing between this and that kind of food of the same 
nourishing qualities, merely on the ground of happiness in 
the use of it. We see, however, that the nerves of the 
mouth are most nicely adjusted to the temper of the juice 
of the apple. And though there be such a great variety in 
the chemical formation of different kinds of food, prepared 
in different modes, yet there is, in almost all the millions 
of the human family, a corresponding and wonderfully nice 
adjustment in the numerous nerves with which the mouth 
is supplied, so that eating is a pleasure as well as a utility. 
To produce this result, there must have been a wonderful 
cooperation between the goodness and wisdom of Almighty 
God; for, without this, the most wholesome and nutritious 
food would be as likely to have the taste of putrid meat, 
or Indian turnip, or sand, as of beef-steaks or pies. Wis- 
dom made food nutritious, and goodness made it pleasant to 
the taste. 

And just so of the sense of seeing. But for a most won- 
derful adjustment in the formation of the retina of the eye 



GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD. 21 

and the color of a landscape, seeing would be generally 
painful. Most things we see are green or of greenish color. 
This simple fact ministers largely to human happiness. And 
then the great variety in the colors of nature and the cor- 
responding structure in the organs of sight render seeing a 
great pleasure as well as a utility. When some of the 
nerves of the eye become diseased, see how painful it 
oftentimes becomes to look out upon almost any thing. 
Now, we are obliged to conclude that but for the constant 
exercise of Divine goodness and wisdom, this great pain in 
seeing would be a common experience every moment of our 
lives, as the eye passes from one object to another. 

And just so in hearing. The melody of common sounds 
is pleasurable. This is not necessarily so, nor could it be 
the result of accident. The voice of a friend might be as 
intelligible as it is, and yet grate upon the ear like a rasp 
upon a mill-saw, piercing asunder almost the very nerves 
of the teeth. The voice of birds, of the wind, the prattling 
of babes, the violin, the cascade, the base of the lowing ox, 
the rolling of the billow, or the sweet melody of song, are 
all sources of untold happiness to mankind. The simple 
utility of hearing is, we may say, produced by wisdom; 
while all that is pleasureable in sound, with its many vary- 
ing notes, is to be attributed to the Divine goodness. The 
former might be as complete as it is now, with little or 
nothing of the latter. There can be no doubt that, but for 
special interworking of the wisdom and goodness of God in 
tempering the delicate texture of the atmosphere for the 
conveyance of sound, and the perhaps still more delicate 
construction of the ear to that end, that hearing would, in 
most if not all cases, be attended with intense pain. 

And the sense of feeling, also, and the manner in which 
it is exercised, give indubitable evidence of the immeasur- 
able display of the Divine goodness and wisdom. But for 
these special preparations and adaptations, every thing we 
would touch would give us pain. 



22 DIUTURNITY. 

And what is it that causes a pleasurable fragrance to emit 
from the rose, or a sweet odor to arise from the meats we 
eat, hut the exact measurements and adaptations of Divine 
goodness and wisdom? "We judge to a considerable extent 
of the qualities of food by the sense of smell. But it is 
certainly not necessary that pleasurable sensations should be 
the rule of acceptance and rejection, or that the exercise of 
these organs should ever be attended with happiness. 

But in all these things we see, as clearly as the sun at 
noonday, that there is an infinitely wise and benevolent 
adaptation in the placing of each one of the millions of 
nerves, fibers, tendons, muscles, bones, and juices of the hu- 
man system, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the at- 
mosphere, the light, heat, color, density, fluidity, and solidity 
of every part and particle of the earth's surface, and its 
attendant properties, in its animal, vegetable, and mineral 
kingdoms. Every thing in itself and its relations is exactly 
fitted to its end and purpose. There is not a useless piece 
of machinery. There are not two things where one would 
answer as well; there are not ten things where nine would 
serve as good a purpose. 

In all the countless variety of vegetation on the earth's 
surface — the number of leaves, the texture of bark, the de- 
cay of old foliage, and the production of new, the length of 
time necessary for its maturity — all are placed in precise 
harmony and adaptation with the composition of the atmos- 
phere, the descending rain, the changes of the seasons, the 
recurrence of day and night, and every other earthly phe- 
nomenon. There is no jargon, no conflict, nothing made in 
vain, no lack, no redundancy. And the end of the whole 
and of each particular is, that the earth may be the better 
fitted to furnish a complete and happy residence for man. 

Thus it is that God's WISDOM and GOODNESS under- 
lie all true reasoning respecting the phenomena of the world 
regarded as a residence for mankind. It was made perfect, 
absolutely perfect in all its parts; for its Maker, in view 



NOTHING IS MADE IN VAIN. 23 

not merely of its then present condition, but of its course, 
sweep, career, use, and destiny, pronounced it "GOOD." 
And whether it had been so pronounced or not, such must 
have been its character, because it is the result of Infinite 
wisdom and goodness. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOD BEING INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD, THERE IS NOTHING 
MADE IN VAIN, BUT EVERY THING EOR AN ADEQUATE 
PURPOSE. 

It is not only a necessary deduction of reason that noth- 
ing could be made in vain, and that there could be no lack 
of any thing useful to man, seeing that Glod is infinitely 
wise and infinitely benevolent, and that he is our God, but 
when we examine the world itself, so far as we are at pres- 
ent capable of doing so, we find this doctrine abundantly 
vindicated. We know, however, but little of the world we 
inhabit, of its earth, rocks, minerals, water, vegetation, ani- 
mals, atmosphere, light, heat, etc., and of the laws by which 
they are related and governed. And still less do we know 
of the extent to which they may be made to combine and 
cooperate for the advantage of mankind. Since we have 
inhabited the world, we have made ourselves acquainted 
with a few of these things and their laws, though it is cer- 
tain that most of them lie quite beyond our observation. 
And we see nothing made in vain. 

Perhaps some might assent to this general proposition — 
that every thing was made for a purpose — with but a faint 
and partial conception of its practical importance. The 
principle must hold good in all its practical details. The 
earth has exactly the right size, and the proper specific 



24 DIUTURNITY. 

gravity, and is composed of the kind of material best suited 
to its end. And the materials with which it is furnished, 
air, water, minerals, vegetation, etc., is also of the proper 
kind and quantity. The idea is a pretty large one, and 
comprehends a great variety of particulars, and has im- 
mensity of extent, but it must be entertained as a basis of 
reasoning. The world was created not for a general but 
for a specific purpose. 

On this point we are unmistakably informed. After God 
had created the earth with its properties and animals, each 
perfect in itself, with inherent provision for a continuous 
existence, he said, "Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of 
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth." And further it is said: "And 
God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and mul- 
tiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth.*' 

Thus man was not only prepared for a universal propri- 
etorship of the earth and all it contained, and was then 
placed in that office without either a rival or a copartner, 
but God blessed the whole property thus placed in man's 
possession for his use, and then blessed, man in the use and 
possession of it. 

Hence we see that God prepared a habitation for man, 
completely furnished in every particular, and then prepared 
man for the habitation. And between the two there was a 
complete adaptation in every particular, without any sur- 
plus or unnecessary preparation on the one hand, or any 
thing lacking on the other. 

We are, however, obliged to presume that at that period 
man had but little knowledge of the extent of the grant thus 
made to him or of its value. He had seen but little of "all 



THE ADAMIC CURSE. 25 

the earth," its properties, its surface, and its internal stores, 
and of every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 
And how far since that time the descendants of Adam have 
made themselves acquainted with this property, and how far 
they have appropriated the estate to its full use and intent, 
are some of the questions we will endeavor to look into in 
the future. The grant was as complete as was the previous 
creative preparation ; and that was as complete and as large 
as is man's natural capacity to appropriate and to use it 
would allow. 

The world, in every particular, was the very best that 
could be for man's use; and on the other hand, man was 
endowed with such capabilities as fitted him in the very 
best way for such a large and rich proprietorship. And 
then the earth, with all its properties, was formally and sol- 
emnly handed over into man's possession. 



CHAPTER IV. 



RESPECTING THE ADAMIC CURSE AND SOME OF ITS IMME- 
DIATE EFFECTS. 

The proprietor with his property was thus fitted and in- 
tended for a rich and glorious future. He was not only to 
"have dominion" over the whole earth, and all that it pos- 
sessed, but he was to "subdue" it. By this we understand 
that he was to occupy and use it practically. It was not to 
be his merely nominally, but he was to take actual super- 
vision and control over it, and was to reduce it to actual 
use, so that the whole of it — every thing — that was given 
was to minister to the comfort of man and the glory of 
Grod. This was to be the case not with a part of the world, 
nor a part of the things with which it was furnished, but 
3 



26 DIUTURNITY. 

with all that was given. Nothing was made for any other 
purpose than to he "subdued" — used by man. 

But, alas! man was faithless to the trust. That is, two 
persons were faithless, and they being the common progen- 
itors of the race, and their offspring inheriting the sinful 
dispositions they thus imbibed by transgression, the Lord 
pronounced to them the following law: 

"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou 
eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles 
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of 
the field ; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till 
thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : 
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 

This can not be regarded a change in the programme of 
the world as relates to the Almighty; but, as relates to us 
and our habitation, it certainly introduced a new and mel- 
ancholy state of things. 

And now, what does this change imply? Or rather, first, 
let us inquire and see what it does not imply. It does 
not imply a disannulling or abridgment of the grant. The 
proprietorship, in man, of the world and all its properties 
remained. Nor does it imply that man will be ever or 
finally restricted in the use and occupation of the world or 
of any thing it possesses. God does not, in the curse, take 
back from man any thing which he gave him; nor does he 
render any thing useless to him. 

The curse was a punishment inflicted on mankind, or 
rather denounced against him, for the sins committed by 
his hands. It enacts that in using the world and its prop- 
erties, very little of which was then known to him, and re- 
ducing them to the utmost of their natural capacity, to 
meet the wants of man, man should labor. Little or noth- 
ing should come forth spontaneously, but that toil — the 
sweat of the face — should be the rule and the measure of 
its subjugation and appropriation. And there are some 
other consequences of this curse which will be noticed in 



THE RESTORATION. 27 

the further progress of this argument. And there are still 
others, which, in their nature, do not belong to this argu- 
ment, and will not, therefore, be considered in it. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE RESTORATION, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH IT WAS TO 
BE EFFECTED. 

We now proceed to show, from a series of testimony 
and argument, that the ruins of the fall are to be rebuilt; 
that restoration shall be established in the course of 
time. This restoration will not be absolutely complete in 
all respects; but, like any other restoration in human af- 
fairs, will be as complete as the nature of things allow. 

The serpent, whoever or whatever this was, was the prime 
agent in this evil ; and though he should be permitted to do 
much evil in the world, even to the bruising of the heel of 
man, yet man should finally bruise his head. And this is 
to be done, not in some other world than this, nor under 
some other constitution of affairs, but in this self-same 
world, and under the present constitution of things. We 
are, therefore, to look, in the course of time, as it is now 
progressing, for the devil to become completely despoiled of 
his power to harm. His power shall be destroyed. He shall 
be chained by Almighty power. He shall fight his last 
battle, and in it his defeat shall be signal, overwhelming, 
complete, and glorious. His pretended, usurped, and un- 
lawful kingdom shall be taken away, and he shall be not 
only dethroned, but he shall be imprisoned. Not only shall 
he not rule others, but he shall not have personal liberty 
for himself. He shall be driven completely back off the 
platform of this world, and shall not thenceforth even men- 



28 DIUTURNXTT. 

ace its peace nor its purity. His subjugation will be com- 
plete and absolute. And all this snail be part and parcel 
of the history of this very world of ours in its regular, nat- 
ural onward course, 

The means by which this restoration is to be effected is 
the natural working of the moral system called Religion. 
This system of religion is revealed to man by the Almighty, 
and is nothing more nor less than a succinct or well-grouped 
delineation of the varied relationship actually subsisting be- 
tween God and man, and pointing out to man how, on his 
part, that relationship must be sustained in the various de- 
tails of practical life. 

The fall, as Adam's sin is generally called, disturbed that 
relationship on man's part, and rendered it impracticable 
for him to fulfill it. And the restoration not only gave to 
man this necessary ability, but set on foot other objective 
means, which secured the certainty of success. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF CHRIST IN THE SIMPLE WORKINGS 
OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION WILL BE ABSOLUTELY COM- 
PLETE. 

There is seen floating loosely about among Christians a 
sort of matter-of-course theory respecting the greatness of 
Christ's triumph over sin, which admits rather than claims 
that he will, in some way not practically understood or at all 
comprehended, be finally victorious. But a complete, sensi- 
ble, practical belief that in the course of time the ruins of 
the fall will be rebuilt, and the conquest of Christ over his 
adversary will be full, complete, and resistless, like the con- 



THE FINAL TRIUMPH OP CHRIST. 29 

quest of God over a feeble creature, is not by any means 
as uniform and satisfactory in the minds of Christians as so 
important a religious truth ought to be. 

The power which undertook this work is nothing less 
than the power of Almighty God. And the resisting ad- 
versary is nothing more than a feeble, tottering, palsied 
creature. It is the majestic power of Jehovah against a 
vapid, self-sufficient blusterer, with no real power save that 
of his blinded, conceited imagination. And so, as to the 
issue, finally, there can be no doubt. 

There is, perhaps, no biblical or religious truth more 
clearly set forth than this: that the time will come, in the 
course of its history, when it will be seen that the damage 
done to the world by the power of Satan has been repaired 
fully, and when sin, in the person and conduct of man, 
shall be no more seen in the earth. And this will be the 
result not of some new expedient of the Almighty, but of 
the great plan of salvation at first introduced, so very briefly 
and graphically stated in the third chapter of Genesis, but 
which was no doubt extensively and elaborately made 
known, and is now in the course of its progress — the cross 
of Christ and work of the Holy Ghost. 

Notice a few declarations on this point: 

"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with 
the glory of the Lord." — Num. xiv: 21. 

"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and wor- 
ship before thee, Lord; and shall glorify thy name.'' — ■ 
Ps. lxxxvi: 9. 

"For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that 
he might destroy the works of the devil." — 1 John, iii : 8. 

"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto 
the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
before thee." — Ps. xxii: 27. 

"Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all nations 
shall serve him." — Ps. lxxii: 11. 

" In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and hia 



30 BIUTURNITY. 

idols of gold, winch they made each one for himself to wor- 
ship, to the moles and to the bats." — Isa. ii: 20. 

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord 
G-od will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke 
of his people shall he take away from off all the earth : for 
the Lord hath spoken it." — Isa. xxv: 8. 

" I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me 
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall serve." — Isa. xlv: 
23. 

"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting 
nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy 
walls Salvation and thy gates Praise." — Isa. lx: 18. "Thy 
people also shall be all righteous: they shaU inherit the 
land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my 
hands, that I may be glorified." — Verse 21. 

" The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." — Hab. ii: 14. 

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor 
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for 
they shall all know me from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, saith the Lord." — Je. xxxi: 34. 

"In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, 
Holiness unto the Lord: and the pots in the Lord's house 
shall be like bowls before the altar." — Zacli. xiv: 20. 

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mount- 
ain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." — Isa. xi : 9. 

These quotations, and many more that might be added, 
prove beyond question that human holiness will be uni- 
versal after awhile, at some period in the world's history. 
It is a plain, simple, easily understood matter. It is merely 
a change which the present system of things will work in 
the condition of the world. The Christian religion, with 
its present working machinery, is fully capable of all this. 
Let it work, and work long enough, and it will most surely 



THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF CHRIST. 31 

renovate the world perfectly. After a sufficient time there 
will be not a sinning man in the world; all will serve God. 
There will be no exception. There will be no exhortations 
to holiness, for there will be no necessity for them. All 
will be holy. Every pulsation of every heart will be earn- 
est devotedness to God, through Jesus Christ. 

But this will be no more heaven upon earth than it is 
now. It will be merely the earth, the present earth as it 
ought to be. Sin is an interloper here. It does not nat- 
urally belong here; ought not to be here. 

If a man will but lengthen out his views and elevate his 
conceptions in some sort corresponding to a world-like, God- 
like sweep of periodicity, and not regard the world as under 
sentence of death in its infancy, there will be found no diffi- 
culty in conceiving and following the Scripture representa- 
tions into a gradual improvement in Christianity, until there 
shall be none left to advocate the cause of sin in either 
theory or practice.. 

All this requires no dark, mysterious unravelings of what 
is well known to be very uncertain prophesy. It requires 
no preternatural dashes of providential events, no unnatural 
developments of any kind, but a smooth, onward flow of 
causes already agoing, a mere increase of religion among 
men. This simple theory, as natural as it is simple, will be 
found to harmonize most smoothly with the Scripture men- 
tion of the second coming of Christ and with the Millen- 
ium, so-called. If theologians will but let this physical 
world alone, and suffer it to live out half its days, and per- 
form some reasonable portion of the things assigned to it 
by its Maker, the things in it will work out their proper 
natural results in due time. 



32 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NATURAL ADVANCEMENT OF THE WORLD AND OF RE- 
LIGION CONSIDERED. 

T\ t hen we have once arrived at the point whence we can 
see, through the Scriptures, the certainty of a coming sin- 
less period in the history of the world — a time of universal 
holiness in the people of the world — we are prepared to in- 
quire into the simple naturalness and philosophy of the 
change. The improvement upon the present state of things 
will be very great. 

If we but let our minds swing loose from a cramped, re- 
stricted but unnatural view of periodicity, into which they 
are likely to fall, and suppose it as probable that a world 
would live a million or many millions of years as six or 
seven thousand years, we will be better prepared to take a 
natural or world-like view of the course of time. Our ideas 
of progress, of advancement, of improvement, are very mate- 
rially influenced by our notion of the entire period in which 
improvement is possible. 

A work to be accomplished in a day requires quick act- 
ivity. If the morning hours pass without sensible im- 
provement, the enterprise is likely to fail. Or if it is to 
be accomplished in a lifetime, we can, in like manner, note 
the necessary progress. And if it is to be accomplished in 
a thousand or in ten thousand years, the rule, relatively, is 
the same, but the points of progress pass entirely beyond 
our comprehension. We each see but fifty or eighty years 
of the world's periodicity; and beyond this, the little we 
learn from past history would not warrant us in forming a 
very safe opinion whether the world is progressing in im- 



ADVANCEMENT OF THE WORLD AND RELIGION. 33 

provement with sufficient rapidity or not, if it be destined 
to a lifetime of a hundred thousand or a million of years. 
Improvement of all valuable kinds might be progressing 
with adequate rapidity and regularity, though at the pres- 
ent time no improvement at all were apparent. 

Those who see that the world has already survived the 
vigor and strength of its manhood, and find it now in its 
sear old age and rapid decline, can discover no mode by 
which its natural work, as seen and revealed, is to be ac- 
complished but by some rapid and unnatural winding up of 
its affairs, in a rapid and brilliant conclusion, entirely unlike 
the character of its regular life. And so the prophesies of 
Scripture are tortured to make them support a hypothesis 
which their conjectures have rendered necessary. 

But perhaps these conclusions may be hasty, and the 
world may not be relatively so old as they imagine. We 
might inquire, by what means has it been ascertained with 
certainty that the world has even entered upon its adult 
period of life? Where is the Scripture or where is the 
reason of the thing which testifies as to 'the proportion of 
the world's years which are past, or as to the maturity of 
sublunary things? 

And, then, supposing the world to be in its juvenile be- 
ginnings — that in these six or seven thousand years it is 
only just in the commencement of its great career of life — 
let us look briefly at the simple and natural manner in 
which its religious character would be likely to improve in 
the course of time. 

It is assumed that the world is improving in morals and 
religion, and has been improving since the earliest ages. 
A hasty glance at some particular country, and even partic- 
ular period of a few years, might lead a superficial observer 
to a different notion ; but no sober conclusion can be drawn 
in that way. The only way to look at this point is to take 
a survey of the entire world at periods removed from each 
other a thousand years or more. 



34 DITJTURNITY. 

If the world is not improving, then revealed religion .is a 
failure. But by this I do not mean that we must necessa- 
rily see the improvement every time we look upon the 
world. The weather grows colder from the first of Sep- 
tember until December, and yet we do not discern it every 
day; indeed, it does not grow colder every day in every 
place. Now it is warmer than it was last week; or it is 
warmer or colder in different countries; and yet it grows 
colder, certainly, on the whole. The approach of winter 
is certain but irregular. Just so of the approach of a bet- 
ter condition of morals and religion in the world ; and so of 
almost all human improvement. 

Religion is a grand remedial system. It was planned by 
the wisdom of Grod, and instituted as a remedy for «m. 
And to suppose that it does not remedy the evil is to sup- 
pose it is a failure. And if it be true that the course of 
time is well-nigh run ; that the period allotted for the work 
of religion in the world is about to expire, then it may be 
said to be a failure. By considering religion a failure, I 
mean merely that the system was not adapted to the con- 
dition and circumstances of mankind. 

Religion has a strong, innate, self-propagating tendency, 
and its onward progress is irregular only because of the ob- 
stacles and counter-currents it meets with here and there. 
Its moral force is very much greater than is generally sup- 
posed, and so, also," is the power of evil it has to contend 
with far greater than men generally seem to think. 



THE TENDENCY IN RELIGION IS TO INCREASE. 35 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NATURAL TENDENCY IN RELIGION IS TO INCREASE. 

The natural tendency of the world is to grow worse and 
worse, with constant and most fearful rapidity. The nat- 
ural tendency in religion is to increase with equal rapidity. 
But how is it here, where we have both influences at work 
in opposition to each other? Where is to be found the 
balance of power amid these two great counter-working 
agencies? Where is the preponderancy? 

This inquiry throws us back upon the axiom of Glod's 
wisdom and goodness. It, in effect, inquires whether our 
system of revealed religion is adapted, in an infinitely wise 
and benevolent manner, to the circumstances and conditions 
of mankind, so that the great end in view will be naturally 
reached in the shortest and best way possible. Let this be 
conceded, and the superiority of the motive force of relig- 
ion over its competitor follows as matter of course. 

This is abundantly attested by both reason and revelation. 
God embarked all the means he had — speaking with human 
words — in the enterprise of salvation. 

When religion began its operations, it had to encounter 
a world full of wickedness, among a people most abomina- 
bly corrupt. But, being wisely adapted to its end, it set 
out vigorously upon its enterprise of subjugation. Since 
which period the time is so short, compared with the mag- 
nitude of the undertaking and the condition of the world, 
that not much opportunity has been afforded for the devel- 
opment of practical results; and the greatest difficulties 
would be naturally encountered in its beginning. 

A quaint old man, of great wealth and much experience 



36 DIUTURNITY. 

in making money, once observed that almost the only dif- 
ficulty in getting rich was encountered in the first million. 

Just so. The philosophical miser had discovered the 
great principle of increase, and he applied it to that which 
most interested him. And the same principles may well be 
applied to Christianity. 

For long periods religion has to contend with the un- 
broken power of the adversary, put forth in a thousand dif- 
ferent ways; and on a thousand battle-fields the enemy 
seems to wear off the laurels. But all this while the power 
of God is in the Gospel, and it moves on quietly and irre- 
sistibly, though irregularly as to places and periods. 

Religion requires and supposes enjoyment, and that sup- 
poses increase. That which, in this respect, is true of one 
man, is true of a million and of all mankind. Religion in- 
creases religion. The man who possesses religion is happy 
in its enjoyment, and desires and therefore works for more. 
It is the very nature of religion to increase. To grow in 
grace is a religious principle. And the man who grows in 
grace does so because his religion so prompts him; because 
he so desires. He does so not because of the command, 
but because his religious feelings so urge him. 

God addresses himself to the world as it is. He offers his 
grace to man where he is, and as he is actually conditioned, 
so that in the use of religion there is nothing miraculous 
or even preternatural. Every thing here is perfectly nat- 
ural. Man uses the offer of grace and religion itself just 
as he does any other providential advantage. The tendency 
in religion to increase is, therefore, the same as the tendency 
in science to increase, or in the arts improve. Mechanism 
is improving because of an inherent tendency in man's na- 
ture to improve it, coupled with a susceptibility of improve- 
ment in the thing itself. 

But when we look out upon the world, we see there has 
been much more actual improvement in agriculture, in nav- 
igation, in hydraulics, in chemistry, literature, commerce, 



THE TENDENCY IN RELIGION IS TO INCREASE. 37 

motive-power, etc., than in religion. Now, how is this? 
Religion is far more valuable to mankind than any of these 
things; and why does it not improve at least equally with 
them? The reason is obvious and perfectly natural. It is 
simply because there were actually in the one case greater 
difficulties to encounter, more obstacles to overcome, more 
hindrances to displace than in the other. For the same 
reason agriculture has improved more than geology. In all 
these cases the principle of improvement is the same. 

Seeing, therefore, the strong and almost irresistible ten- 
dency in man to idolatry, his blinded, infatuated, and pow- 
erful inclination to seek for happiness — or at least enjoy- 
ment — in the things of the world which he possesseth, the 
rushing violence of his inordinate passions, with his wild, 
crazy, and insane aversion to the moral regimen of God, it 
is indeed no wonder that in these few centuries religion has 
scarcely made a fair beginning in the world. All along 
there, have been a few pious people in the world; but the 
number has been so small, and the opposition to them so 
united and so great, that as yet religion has scarcely secured 
a foothold in the world. Nevertheless, in these few thou- 
sand years, religion has made some fair and solid begin- 
nings. Upon the entire world it has made little or no im- 
pression; but upon a portion of the world, the best though 
the smaller portions, it has made a very decided impression. 
Nine-tenths of the people of Christendom, though nine- 
tenths of them are personally very wicked, are, notwith- 
standing, solemnly and firmly impressed with the belief that 
religion is the one thing needful. This, though compara- 
tively but little, is nevertheless a considerable attainment. 
The work of religion upon the world has at least begun, 
and is advancing. Natural causes are at work. The pres- 
ent generation will be dead to-morrow, and one somewhat 
improved will succeed it. 

But there is one principle that must be more thoroughly 
inaugurated before there can be any great or permanent in- 



38 DIUTTTRNITY. 

crease in religion. More thorough means — a hundredfold 
more thorough — for the inculcation of foundation-principles 
in children must be introduced. Or, to make myself better 
understood, I had perhaps better say infants than children. 
Seeing how the proper culture of children, in the first one 
or two years of their lives, is universally neglected, it is in- 
deed a wonder that the world is as good as it is. It is en- 
tirely sober, prudent, and truthful to say that in Christen- 
dom children are uniformly if not universally suffered to 
become hopelessly ruined or deeply injured, in the absence 
of a miracle of mercy, before they reach the end of the 
first or second years of their lives. We hope to elaborate 
this subject in a future chapter. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



CONCERNING THE NATURAL PROCESS BT WHICH CHILDREN 
INHERIT PIETY. 

Association has much to do in the formation of char- 
acter. But there is another law which stands before this, 
and which deserves attention just here — the law of transmis- 
sion from father to son. This law is at present but poorly 
understood in this new world of ours. The inheritance by 
children from their parents of physical characteristics, 
though not understood, is nevertheless easily seen in its 
results. And moral and intellectual characteristics are also 
inherited. And the rule, at least in some respects, is the 
same as that of physical transmission. And the rule is uni- 
form because it is a rule, though its effects are not uni- 
formly seen. 

The reason of this lack of uniformity in the descent of 
characteristics from the immediate parents to their children 



PROCESS BY WHICH CHILDREN INHERIT PIETY. 39 

is another of the things we do not well understand ; but we 
see that these elements of character sometimes lie latent for 
one, two, or more generations, and then crop out here and 
there. The occasional introduction of adverse influences is 
perhaps, in part, the cause of these irregularities. Let an 
unhealthy father or mother be introduced into a line of 
progeny of great vigor and healthfulness, and the result 
will be seen, perhaps, here and there, two or three genera- 
tions afterward. And nothing but the continuance of the 
union of healthy parents will be found able to crowd out, 
as it were, after awhile, this unhealthy infusion. 

And it is just so in intellectual and moral characteris- 
tics. If dull, talentless, and unlettered parents sometimes 
bring forth a sprightly and talented child, it is because a 
parent with superior endowments was placed in the chain 
of ancestry not many links back. 

And so, in some respects at least, does the rule work in 
morals and even religion. Though in this case the counter- 
influences come in so rapidly that the result is not so 
readily discovered. In truth, we have as yet learned but 
little of this wonderful law of our nature. Nor do we in- 
deed know that we have discovered any thing, with cer- 
tainty, beyond the tendency. By this is meant, merely, 
that in a line of pious ancestry, other things being equal, 
and independently of training, the probability of children 
being pious is greater than in a line of vitiated and irre- 
ligious ancestry. 

To this it might be objected that the innate depravity of 
human nature stands out in children in ail circumstances, 
and can not be forestalled or Counteracted by any fortuitous 
circumstances, however favorable; and that to defeat this 
sin, the attack must be made direct and in person in each 
individual case. 

To this objection, if it be an objection, it might be re- 
plied, first, that some states of society are far, very far, 
more favorable to the early growth and propagation of re- 



40 DIUTURNITY. 

ligion than others-; and hence it follows that a community 
might he so improved in religion that sin had not been 
committed in it for centuries. 

Secondly, that innate natural depravity is not sin, but 
only a sinful tendency or predisposition ; and, therefore, that 
actual sin, though certain to occur in certain circumstances, 
is never necessary. It ought never to be, and may, there- 
fore, or ought to be, avoided in every case. 

Thirdly, that a child is capable of religion as soon as he 
is capable of sin. He is capable of doing right as soon as 
he is capable of doing wrong. It is by no means necessary 
that he should enter upon and continue for a time in sin 
in order to be converted and become a Christian. So. soon 
as mental development will allow a child to do wrong, it 
will allow of his doing right. Sin is doing: wrong ; holiness 
is doing right. And it would be a contradiction to suppose 
that when capable of the one he is not capable of the other. 

That the world will become sinless in its future genera- 
tions may be set down as certain; and that this will be 
brought about by a gradual improvement of one generation 
upon another, successively, is also certain. And this cer- 
tainly never could occur if children did not come into the 
world with a religious tendency superior to that of their 
ancestors. How moral traits or tendencies are physically 
imparted by the parent to the offspring we may not know 
thoroughly in the present state of science, though it might 
not be difficult to show the reasonableness of the thing 
upon strictly philosophical principles. 

These laws of transmission, however, are truly wonderful 
in their effects. And we know that they attach as readily 
to moral as to physical dispositions. For mere lack of op- 
portunity — our own lives being so short — we do not person- 
ally witness these effects in a current extending beyond a 
very few generations. But both history and analogy testify 
that the procreative current is continuous, and is not to be 
shifted or broken. Let no parents enter the line but such 



PROCESS BY WHICH CHILDREN INHERIT PIETY. 41 

as possess some particular characteristic, no matter what, 
and that particular characteristic will continue to rise and 
predominate indefinitely. 

In the different races of men we see a great variety and 
peculiarity of habitude, and in each a variety of leading 
prominent features unlike any found elsewhere. Now, it 
is apparent that these inclinations have strengthened by 
inheritance as generations passed along down the line of 
genealogical descent. A Laplander or an Esquimaux with 
the same education would not stand equal with the refined 
Englishman or American. 

If it be true, as has been attempted to be taught by a 
very few, but maintained by none, that all personal pecul- 
iarity of moral and mental temperament is bestowed directly 
from nature, in each individual case, then indeed there is 
little or no room left for the operation of those great mental 
and moral agencies, perception and memory. 

It is perhaps true that all moral and mental phenomena 
result from perception and memory. And that infants at 
birth possess these qualities in various degrees is certain; 
and also that their tendencies or inclinations are bestowed 
by our Maker through the media of procreation. The 
mode of the Divine government is natural, and not immedi- 
ately miraculous. 

We know that, for some reasons, some persons are more 
religiously disposed than others. How does this come 
about? By God's grace, it might be replied. But how? 
Through what media is this grace bestowed? And the an- 
swer is, By natural rather than by miraculous means. 



42 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTEE X. 

CONCERNING THE COMPARATIVE AGE OF THE WORLD 

WHETHER' IT IS OLD OR YOUNG. 

Is this an old or a new world? Has it nearly or quite 
accomplished its purposes, met the ends of its creation, and, 
in its sear and declining years, is about to lie down and die? 
Or is it in the prime of life — the vigor of youth? Or is it 
in the feeble, incipient years of infancy? These are sig- 
nificant questions, which enter largely into the philosophy 
of God's plan of life and salvation. They are questions 
which enter into the vital parts of the Divine administra- 
tion, and with which we, as thinking men, have very much 
to do. 

For thousands of years past there has been occasionally 
afloat, a cropping out here and there, a notion that the 
world had become very old and would soon sink into de- 
crepitude and decay. And in more recent times we have 
had some considerable teaching on the probable or certain 
winding-up of the affairs of the world at some period near 
at hand. Sometimes these teachings seem to put on much 
seriousness, and, by the interpretation of prophesies and 
other Scriptures, determine the very year or month or day 
when the world will come to an end. 

These fixed periods for the world's dissolution have gen- 
erally been a few months or years in advance. Many of 
these have been reached and are now behind us, but the 
world still lives. At times, of late years, these interpreta- 
tions of prophesy have attracted some attention among weak 
and credulous persons. Oftentimes, for lack of exact chro- 
nological data, the precise year or month is not determined 



THE COMPARATIVE AGE OF THE WORLD. 43 

upon, but they generally calculate within from about one 
to five or eight years. 

And again, there is another class of opinion, or impres- 
sion, touching this matter, which is by far more popular 
among sober, thinking persons. They discard the millen*- 
ium predictions as quite uncertain, unscriptural, and unsat- 
isfactory, and hold to no settled belief as to the very near 
Approach of the end of the world. Their views on the par- 
ticular point are undigested, and are placed among the un- 
revealed things of God, which we have, at least, no means, 
if indeed we have the right, of prying into. They see in 
the prophesies no certain predictions on the subject, and, 
therefore, do not feel themselves called upon to give the 
question much critical attention. 

Upon the whole, there is a popular belief that the world 
is not probably far from the period of its dissolution. It 
may happen at any time, and it may not occur in fifty, a 
hundred, or possibly a thousand years yet to come. 

And for some strange reason, I know not what, its de- 

" mise, it is assumed, will occur suddenly, and all nature will 

be taken by surprise, and, unexpectedly and unwarned, will 

be hurled in a moment into a new and transformed state 

of existence. 

It is hoped that these strange and unnatural delusions 
may be at least so far dissipated as to substitute in their 
stead something rational and consistent with the Divine 
wisdom and forecast. 



44 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XI. 

REFUTATION OF SOME POPULAR SENTIMENTS RESPECTING 
THE COMPARATIVE AGE OF THE WORLD. 

The conclusions and impressions above alluded to are 
founded upon no ascertained data or facts, save that the 
strictly millenarian doctrines claim to rest upon interpreta- 
tions of prophecy. This point will be looked into in future 
chapters. The mere circumstance that the world is six 
thousand or seven thousand years old proves nothing to 
the point. It would be just as logical to conclude that a 
man was old because he was six weeks or six years old. 
Those simple facts prove nothing. 

We call a man old when he is three-score and ten ; and 
we say a horse is old when he is twelve or fifteen, and a 
man is young at twenty years. Some animals are old and 
ready to die when they have lived the half of one year. 
Some vegetables are old at three months, while others are 
young at the age of two or three hundred years. 

These are sound deductions from well ascertained laws. 
By long observation, we have ascertained unmistakably 
what is about the average age of many animals and plants; 
and so we say a man is old when he is sixty or seventy. 
But this conclusion is not, surely, because he has lived a 
positive number of years, but because he has lived beyond 
the average age of men. Some plants pass this ascertained 
average of life at five months, and some at five hundred 
years. 

But who has ascertained the average age of worlds? At 
about what age do they usually sink under the weight of 
years and die? Who knows that a world is older, in respect 



REFUTATION OF SOME POPULAR SENTIMENTS. 45 

to its entire course of being, at six or seven thousand years 
than an oak-tree is at sis or seven weeks? 

The earth, in its present form — without reference to the 
material of which it is made — is not immortal, as we under- 
stand that idea. It will grow old and undergo some changes, 
we do not know precisely what. But whether these changes 
will take place in seven thousand years after the creation, 
or seventy thousand, or seventy millions of years, is a ques- 
tion that must be inquired into, if at all, in some philosophic 
or Scriptural manner. We must consult either reason or 
revelation, or most likely both. 

But when one speaks of the possibility of the world's 
continuino- to exist as it now is, the residence of mankind, 
for many thousands or millions of years, the unthinking 
mind staggers under the burden of so large a thought, 
and cries that this is impossible. But this imagined 
impossibility arises entirely from the feebleness of our 
thoughts. 

We have no standard by which to measure periods, nor, in- 
deed, to • measure any thing else. We can only compare 
periods of different lengths. But this determines nothing 
beyond these mere comparisons. If our lives chanced to be 
one, two, or five thousand years long, it is probable that 
our ideas of periodicity would be correspondingly enlarged. 
A being occupying a higher sphere in the scale than our- 
selves, and accustomed to look and act upon periods of six 
or ten thousand years, would handle such periods in his 
mind as we handle hours and days. A year to him would 
seem no longer than an hour does to us. And what 
would he think of a world being considered old merely 
because it had survived six thousand of these little years 
of ours ? 

And, on the other hand, a being of very much shorter life 
than ourselves would consider a man immensely old at five or 
ten years, and a world that had passed a few centuries had 
survived most immeasurable antiquity. In familiar think- 



46 DIUTURNITY. 

ing, periods are esteemed to be almost immeasurably long, 
or triflingly short, according to the length of our intellect- 
ual measuring-line. 



CHAPTER XII. 

A PHILOSOPHICAL RULE BY WHICH THE COMPARATIVE 
AGE OF THE WORLD MAY BE SO FAR ASCERTAINED AS 
TO DETERMINE THAT THIS AGE BELONGS TO ITS IN- 
FANCY. 

There is a standard, there are satisfactory data, by which 
it may be determined unmistakably, not how long the. world 
will live, not how many revolutions round the sun it will 
describe, but that, as yet, it is in its infancy. It is dem- 
onstrable that it is in its infancy in respect to progress, and 
it is morally certain that it is in its infancy, or, at least, in 
its young days, in respect to years. 

And here we go at once right back to the pillar axiom 
of this argument, the WISDOM and GOODNESS of God. 
The world, with every part and every property thereof, was 
made for a purpose and an end. And it must fulfill this 
purpose and answer this end. Or if it shall fail, either in 
benevolence or in adaptation, then the machine is faulty 
somewhere, which can not be. 

An examination of the earth's surface and properties 
proves it to be in the infancy of its being. 

We see the elementary law of completeness in every in- 
tegral portion of the entire economy of nature, from the 
largest to the smallest. Every thing accomplishes its nat- 
ural round and completes its obvious design. Nothing stops 
half-way. Nature leaves nothing unfinished. This is the 
universal law. The rain that falls upon the ground to-day 



A PHILOSOPHICAL RULE. 47 

replenishes the rivers, goes again into vapor, and, passing 
round, performs the same service again. Nothing is wasted. 
If some of it be drank by animals, or by the thirsty ground, 
it is but answering its purpose. And if man or any other 
animals thirst for want of it, or hunger for lack of food, it 
is because they do not meet nature at her own threshold, 
and build cisterns, or dig wells, or till the ground in the best 
possible manner. 

And so of the earth's herbage. Every part has its pur- 
pose. That which is consumed for food passes again into 
the earth or the atmosphere, without losing any of its ele- 
mentary properties, and is again reproduced, to pass another 
round of design and accomplishment. 

And so in the animal kingdom, every thing tends to its 
purpose. Nor is there either lack or surplus. And, very 
slight and partial as have been our examinations into either 
physiology or botany, we have gone far enough to see and 
to wonder at the perfect completeness on the one hand, and 
the entire lack of redundancy on the other. 

And not only is every individual complete and free from 
surplus, in itself considered, but the same thing is seen in 
its relations with other parts of the system of nature. Here 
we behold the most sublime and wonderful evidences of 
Divine wisdom and goodness, cooperating always with the 
Divine power. 

The spire of grass, as it rears and spreads its tiny 
branches, needs to be fed and sustained from day to day by 
the attentive atmosphere, which constantly supplies it with 
the most delicate and well-prepared aliment. But while 
neither the atmosphere nor the moisture, nor any of the 
properties of either, has any thing redundant, or over and 
above the natural wants of vegetable and animal life, so both 
the animal and vegetable departments pay back to the gases 
and moisture a full equivalent, in barter, of such commodi- 
ties as they need. Nor do the former produce any thing 
which the latter do not need, nor in quantities which are 



48 DIUTURNITY. 

superabundant. Every thing has its use and its place. Noth- 
ing is either redundant or ill-adapted. 

We might thus roam through all the greater as well as 
the lesser departments of nature, in search of teachings by- 
analogy, and we would find that every thing, from the dew- 
drop to the ocean, and from the mite to the mountain, of 
which we have any knowledge, teaches the same lesson of 
completeness in every thing, and of redundance in nothing; 
and also of perfect and universal adaptation throughout the 
entire system of nature. The notion that something is made 
for nothing is short-sighted and dishonoring to God. It 
supposes a defect in some of his attributes, or in their wise 
and benevolent exercise. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CONCERNING THE VAST AMOUNT OF UNDISCOVERED NATURE. 

This world is not merely a thing made with its several 
parts cooperating, but it was made for man's residence and 
use. Nothing can glorify God but mind. Man is God's great 
creature, and the earth was made and given to him for his 
use. The end of sublunary nature is the advancement of 
man's interests and happiness, that he may thereby glorify 
God. 

But every thing must be discovered and understood be- 
fore it can be appropriated to man's use. We may readily 
imagine that in the days of Adam not much progress was 
made in discovering and assigning the different properties 
of the earth to their appropriate and proper uses. But, no 
doubt, long previous to the close of the nine hundred- and 
thirty years of the life of that patriarch, it was believed by 
himself and others that very extensive, if not almost final 



CONCERNING UNDISCOVERED NATURE. 49 

and complete discoveries had been made into the system of 
nature; and that almost every property the earth possessed, 
and combination of which they were susceptible, were at 
least pretty well understood. He no doubt concluded, too, 
that the world must be getting very old. As he saw him- 
self evidently in the decrepit days of waning nature, he 
probably concluded the world must soon sink into decay 
and die. It was older than himself, and he was very old. 
And it had answered pretty much, so far as he could see, 
the ends of its creation. It was a great and venerable 
world — was, of course, in its late and declining stages, and 
could not survive many years to come. 

Why should not Adam and Lamech and Methuselah, as 
they oftentimes no doubt sat together and conversed about 
the world and the course of time, reason and conclude in 
this way? Had they not as good grounds for such reason- 
ing and such conclusions then as we have now? The world 
was old. Great and extensive researches had been made 
into its properties, qualities, and susceptibilities. They were 
acquainted with its animated nature, its astronomy, its bot- 
any, its chemistry, geology, materia medica, and with its 
arts and sciences ; and they, no doubt, spoke of the arts and 
sciences with as much sangfroid and satisfaction as we do 
now. They had seen pretty much all there was to see, dis- 
covered pretty much all there was to discover, and had ac- 
complished about all, or evidently nearly all, that lay within 
the reach of man's capability, and now surely the world and 
its affairs have little else to do but wind up and cease to be. 

And I repeat, was not this reasoning and these conclu- 
sions about as philosophical and well founded as the same 
kind of reasonings are now? Go back to the days of the 
earliest antediluvians, and stand where they stood, and view 
the world and the course of time as they viewed them, and 
say if they had not about as good reason to wind up the 
affairs of the world then, in a few years, as we have now. 

It may be said that the world was evidently young and 



50 DITJTtJRNlTY. 



immature then, because Christ had not eome, and Satan's 
head had not been bruised. And it may be said, in reply, 
that very likely they looked forward to these things — so far 
as they looked forward to them at all — -and anticipated them 
with as much rapidity and quickness of accomplishment as 
some of us now anticipate the second coming. It is not at 
all unreasonable to suppose that they looked forward to the 
redeeming work of Christ as a thing to be accomplished in 
a day, a year, or a few years. It is much easier for us to 
look back through years already seen and molded into his- 
tory, than to anticipate those to come by the dim light of 
the lamp that lights up the future. 

The same kind of reasoning then and now would lead to 
about the same conclusions. In either case it is baseless, 
illusory, and unsatisfactory. Our reasonings here, as else- 
where, must be philosophical — with a base-line — with ax- 
ioms. If these axioms and base-lines were not known to 
the early ancients, it is perhaps because of their lack of ex- 
perience. But we have discovered more of both the facts 
and character of the world than they could discover, and 
are therefore less excusable than they. 

We can not now be looked upon as ancients j but will not 
future generations so regard us? Why will not our dis- 
tant posterity look upon us as occupying a place away al- 
most cotemporary with the Apostles and Moses and Noah? 
From where we stand, Noah, Abraham, and Moses occupy 
almost the same poin,t in the chronology of the past, al- 
though Noah was to Abraham as one of the ancients; and 
in turn Abraham became one of the ancients to Moses, as 
Moses did to Isaiah and the later prophets. Chronology 
closes up its periods, almost, as we recede from them. 

We look back and pronounce, with great confidence, that 
the ancients, or even those but a few years behind us, had 
made but small progress in the use and appropriation of 
the many things of which the world consists. And may 



CONCERNING UNDISCOVERED NATURE. 51 

there not be something very illusory in all this? Is it cer- 
tain that we are a long way in advance of them? Perhaps 
we have made but a few simple removes beyond the point 
where our fathers left the world a hundred or a thousand 
years ago. Noah, and those in his day, had made compara- 
tively great advances into the ultimate capacity of the 
world beyond those of the ancients, as they regarded their 
distant ancestors. And so of succeeding generations from 
that day to the present. But how far have any or all these 
penetrated toward the ultimate capacity of the world and 
its properties? To show merely positive advances, proves 
nothing, or almost nothing, to the purpose. Have our ex- 
aminations into the world and its properties proceeded nine- 
tenths, or one-half, or one-tenth-, or one ten-thousandth 
part of the way toward the ultimate capacity of these 
things? How long will it be before we and our researches 
into the world's capacity for usefulness will be looked upon 
as shallow, incipient, and nearly worthless to the world? 

With all our discoveries, researches, and improvements, 
how much — what relative proportion of the world and all 
its qualities and properties, physical and moral — have we 
discovered, examined, analyzed, and subjected to practical 
use to the utmost extent of its capability in all possible 
modifications and relations? 

To say that we have learned to appropriate wood, ore, 
water, caloric, etc., into a ship, a house, a railway or a tele- 
scope, with such and such powers and capacity, proves little 
or nothing more than the red man of the forest proves by 
exhibiting his arrow, and showing that it is more fleet than 
the game he pursues. 

Has the capacity of wood, ore, water, caloric, air, earth, 
with all the properties and qualities of this globe and its 
furniture, been exhausted and pushed to the utmost, in all 
possible modifications and connections for ministering to the 
benefits of mankind? Or, in other words, has the Divine 



52 DIUTURNITY. 

intention, in furnishing these things, been met and carried 
out fully? And, by this rule, are we in a mature or an in- 
cipient period of the world's history? 

I am aware that persons of but moderate reading, espe- 
cially those who have not paid much attention to the later 
marches of science, can have but a very feeble appreciation 
of the magnitude of these questions. I can direct his atten- 
tion only to a few of the grosser substances, and only to 
the surface of these. But I would speak one word to men 
of science. I would suggest to the astronomer, the geolo- 
gist, the naturalist, the chemist, the botanist, to the stu- 
dent of thought, research, and reflection. I ask men who 
can rise above and step beyond the mere little historic facts 
of our superficial experience to ponder these questions. 
"Who has studied the deep labyrinths of chemical affinity — 
of reactions, mechanical, optical, electric, organic? What 
though human experience, brief and with blunted sensi- 
bilities, has demonstrated but the alphabet of mental and 
physical science? An alphabet proves a literary system. 
That is indeed a narrow view of Grod's works which is con- 
tent with the gaze upon a landscape or the distant view of 
an ocean or a mountain. 



SECTION SECOND 



We now proceed to an examination of some little of the 
furniture of the earth, and of the earth itself, with the 
view to ascertain whether these things have as yet, or how 
far they have, answered the evident designs of their creation. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CAPACITY PROVES DESIGN — THE RULE APPLIED TO THE 
WORLD AND ITS FURNITURE. 

• With what do we compare our attainments in the prog- 
ress of the discovery and appropriation of the furniture of 
the world? What is our standard, or straight-edge? To 
say that we have advanced beyond the points reached by 
those behind us proves nothing, except that human affairs 
are advancing. But no matter what our mere positive ad- 
vances may be, that does not prove that we are nine-tenths 
of the way, or one-half the way, or one-tenth, or one-hun- 
dredth part of the entire way onward toward the finale or 
ultimate design of these things. 

We must ■ compare our attainments with the world's CAPAC- 
ITY ; that is, with its DESIGN, for the design can be ascertained 
only by the capacity. 

The world has a size. If it had been made ten times 
larger than it is, or one-tenth its present size, then we 
would be obliged to conclude — keeping in view G-od's Wis- 
dom and Goodness in its arrangement — that the Divine in- 
tention was to give it adaptation accordingly. Its capacity 
must determine the Divine intention. G-od does every thing 
right, and adapts every thing to its end. 

If, in passing along a way, we discover a human habita- 
tion, constructed rudely of a few small poles resting against 
the side of a tree, and covered with bark, the whole being 
the work of an hour, we are irresistibly driven to one of 
two conclusions : either that there was great lack of wisdom, 
goodness, or power, or all three of these things, in the con- 

(55) 



56 DIUTURNITY. 

struction, or that the design was to erect a yery temporary 
habitation, in which one might be sheltered for a night. 
Upon this supposition, and npon this only, is there seen a 
wise adaptation of plan, outlay, and end. 

And then if, again, on another occasion, we meet with 
such a structure as the Grirard College, in Philadelphia, or 
the Tennessee State-house, and we are told it was built by 
a wayfaring man for a tabernacle for the night, we are 
obliged to conclude that there was great lack of wisdom, 
outlay, and adaptation in the construction. We see it built 
of the most durable material, to the entire exclusion of all 
other ; and it has capacity far beyond and in no sort of pro- 
portion to the intention. For what use are these large 
halls and their several chambers, no two alike? This hall 
has capacity and arrangement for a senate-chamber, and 
that has adaptation to accommodate a larger legislative 
body. This is evidently arranged for an office, and that and 
that for other and different kinds of offices. This is ar- 
ranged for a court-room, and these and those for .purposes 
which their arrangement and furniture indicate. But they 
are all, or nearly all, useless, upon the supposition that the 
whole was built for the mere accommodation of a single 
family for a single night. And the conclusion that very 
much of the design was unwise, vain, and useless is in- 
evitable. 

- And precisely in this way do we reason when, in passing 
along, we meet with this world. It has evident capacity far 
greater than has yet been brought into requisition. Very 
much of its surface has never been used at all. Indeed, 
any one may see that no part of the earth's surface has 
been used to the extent of its capacity. 

By the capacity of the earth, it is not intended to 
mean that either it or its furniture is to be used, or is in- 
tended to be used, to the extent of being exhausted or worn 
out or used as long as they are capable of being used. On 
the contrary, as before intimated, so far as we know, both 



CAPACITY PROVES DESIGN. 57 

the earth and its properties might have the capacity of self- 
perpetuation or interminable endurance. But it is meant 
that the earth and all its furniture are to be brought into 
requisition, and be used and made to minister to the wants 
of mankind to the extent of their natural, reasonable ca- 
pacity. A ship of six hundred tons burden would be un- 
wisely adapted to convey six hundred pounds of freight. 

Suppose it be discovered that some island in the sea, of 
which we know but little, possesses some botanical or agri- 
cultural quality, which, by being used in a certain way, 
would augment its agricultural product a hundred-fold, and 
that this discovery be made at a time when such product 
was greatly needed. Who would not say that this was so 
intended and prepared from the beginning? Who does not 
believe the great Western Continent was from the first in- 
tended to be used, and was all along hid away out of sight, 
until the last few years, for good and sufficient reasons? 

Who does not believe that the expansive power of water, 
on being heated, was intended by the Great Designer to give 
it motive force adapted to the propulsion of machinery? And 
then it follows that if the world had been destroyed before 
this discovery had been made, that much of design and 
contrivance would have been in vain. And just so of the 
mariner's compass, of the Copernican system of astronomy, 
of printing, etc. 

And in the same manner we must reason of any of the 
properties or qualities of the earth not yet discovered, They 
are still latent, sleeping, unused. And they will either come 
into use or become proof that some portions of the world 
were made in vain. 

Whatever capacity or quality, property or capability, the 
earth or any of its furniture possesses, discovered or undis- 
covered, was designed and intended to be used, sooner or 
later, for man's benefit, because it was made for him, and 
formally handed over to him for this very purpose. He 
was to subdue it 



58 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE EARTH AND ITS GREAT STORE-HOUSES ARE AS YET 
ALMOST WHOLLY UNDISCOVERED. 

Of the substance of the earth itself we have as yet dis- 
covered, almost nothing. The eye of man has not probably 
even glanced upon one-half its surface. Not many farmers 
of considerable extent have even seen actually one-half their 
land. He has had frequent landscape views of its cultivated 
portions, but it is perhaps only in small farms that the pro- 
prietor has actually looked upon every square foot of its 
surface. Wood, and particularly forest land, has but a 
small portion of it been really seen, every foot of it. Im- 
mense portions of America, Africa, Asia, and even Europe, 
as well as millions of acres of the islands of the sea, have 
not as yet been looked upon by mankind. 

Very large regions of country have not been discovered 
by civilized man, but are in a savage state. What do we 
know of Africa? A traveler passes over a region of sev- 
eral hundred miles in extent and tells us that he saw a 
river, a mountain, and a fertile country, and a desert; and 
he gives them names, and tells us what these names are. 
We read that Columbus discovered America; and yet we 
see that four hundred millions of people since then have 
been constantly making discoveries in it, and it is apparent 
that the work of discovery on this continent is but just 
begun. 

Who has seen the Rocky Mountains, or the Alleghanies, 
or indeed any other mountains? The beasts and reptiles 
that roam over them, and the wild fowl as they look down 
from the branches of the trees they support. But the eye 



THE EARTH AND ITS GREAT STORE-HOUSES. 59 

of man has scarcely glanced over them, and as to the eye 
of science, research, and investigation, it has hardly glanced 
at them by acres, by miles, or by districts. And who has 
seen the large regions of the almost or wholly unexplored 
country of South America, of the West Indies, of Central 
America, of California, or of our great West. What ad- 
vances have been made in scientific researches in the Sand- 
wich Islands, in Australia, in Newfoundland, in New Zea- 
land, or in the great countries of China and Japan? Have 
those countries been thoroughly subjected to the investiga- 
tions of science, in all their capabilities, to add to the com- 
fort and well-being of mankind in all the possible develop- 
ments of which they are capable? Has the thousandth 
part of this been done? 

The only answer to be given to this question is, that, 
within a few years past, a few adventurers have discovered 
a little gold ore on or near the surface in Australia, and in 
Newfoundland one or two ship-harbors, or places where a 
few feet of water approach near the shore, have been dis- 
covered. But whether the former is appropriated to its in- 
tended and profitable uses, and whether the latter is of any 
use, or of what use it really is to mankind, are questions to 
be answered by the future investigations of science, when 
the real wealth of the earth, now latent, shall be further 
inquired into. 

It is not apparent to the sober eye of observation, that 
as a race inhabiting the country of this earth, we have but 
just got here. 

A woodsman of the West has, with his family, penetrated 
the forest, until he finds a fertile little valley where the 
grass is luxuriant, offering food to his weary beast, and, 
beside a grotto at hand, a cooling spring gushes from be- 
neath the rock, and he concludes he will "stop" here. And 
so he appropriates the circumjacent country, and gives a 
name to the brook near the bank of which he builds his 
rude hamlet. And now this country has, in his estimation, 



60 DIUTURNITY. 

come up to the requirements of God, and has answered the 
infinitely-wise purpose, and met the ultimate intentions of 
the Almighty in its formation. 

It is not hazardous to say that this is taking a rather 
superficial and short-sighted view of God and Nature. 

Abraham and Lot had so increased in riches, and their 
flocks and herds had so multiplied, that there was not world- 
room sufficient for them to dwell together; and so they 
separated, and the one took the right hand and the other 
the left. Lot chose "all the plain of Jordan/' and Abram 
took "the plains of Mamre, northward and southward and 
eastward and westward." So these great and noble patri- 
archs appropriated between themselves pretty much all there 
was, or was presumed to be, of this little world ; and they 
practically, and no doubt to their entire satisfaction, vindi- 
cated the wisdom and goodness of God in arranging the 
world so amply to meet the requirements cf their herds- 
men, and the wants of their flocks and cattle. Surely, it 
was a very great and very ample world to meet so fully 
such large requirements, and to answer so completely the 
ends and purposes of two such great and powerful patri- 
archal governments. 

And yet it is quite likely that both the great-grandfather 
of Israel and his nephew fed their flocks, and sojourned, 
and lived, and died in and around Mamre and Jordan, with- 
out exhausting or even appropriating and using any very 
great proportion of the earthly things and properties which 
God seems to have prepared for the sustenance and advan- 
tage of mankind even in those regions. 

The labors of practical science must visit "all the plain 
of Jordan" and the " plains of Mamre, northward and south- 
ward and eastward and westward," and must pass them 
through a smaller and better crucible than those earlier 
settlers used. What has the practical geologist, mineralo- 
gist, agriculturist, and other men of scientific, research, and 
application reported on the subject? 



CONCERNING ROCKS, HILLS, AND DESERTS. 61 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CONCERNING! ROCKS, HILLS, AND DESERTS — THEIR CONDI- 
TION AND DESIGN. 

A considerable portion of the earth's surface is covered 
with barren rocks, precipitous and almost inaccessible mount- 
ains and sterile desert plains. These are generally consid- 
ered the barren, useless, and fruitless portions of the world. 
It is waste land. But that which in one period of the 
world is considered waste land, at another is regarded as 
very valuable. Only a very few years ago large districts 
of country in the Mississippi bottom, marsh land in South 
Carolina, and bogs iu England, Scotland, and Ireland, which 
are now among the most productive and valuable farm-lands 
in the world, were considered to be almost entirely value- 
less. 

The Spanish Governor of Louisiana, but a very few years 
ago, offered to a citizen of Natchez, well-known to me, a good 
title to almost any quantity of land on the Mississippi 
River, opposite that city, if he would pay the expense of 
surveying it. But the land being worthless, the offer was 
declined. That same gentleman lived to see that same land 
sell for from two hundred to five thousand dollars per acre. 

A few years ago, a large farm in New York, lying in the 
neck of land formed by the junction of the Hudson and 
East Rivers, was purchased for thirty dollars' worth of In- 
dian beads and blankets. Since that time considerable por- 
tions of that same land have been sold at the rate of a 
million and a quarter of dollars per acre, and no portion of 
it could now be purchased for less than three or four hun- 
dred thousand dollars an acre. 



62 DIUTURNITY. 

But a few years ago the sites of the cities of London, 
Paris. Dublin, and Edinburgh were bartered for a few trink- 
ets. What was the value three hundred years ago of the 
land where now stand the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, 
and New Orleans, or of any other land on this continent? 
How is it that a piece of land near to some town or city is 
worth one thousand dollars per acre, when far better land, 
as land is generally esteemed, more remote, is worth ten 
cents per acre or nothing? Surely, it is because intrinsic 
and surrounding circumstances have not developed the latent 
value of land in the latter case. Why should lands be of 
less value on the Niger than on the Thames? 

The earth's surface is becoming more and more valuable 

because it is becoming more and more useful. It is chang- 
es & 

ing from a barren and wilderness state to a highly-cultivated 
and useful condition. This progress is very general, though 
somewhat irregular. We are gradually acquiring more and 
more knowledge of the value and uses of the surface of the 
earth, and it is very certain that we have no knowledge that 
any portion of it is useless. 

In the present state of the arts and sciences, we make 
little or no use of those rugged rocky hills. Possibly they 
answer some good in the formation of channels for healthful 
breezes; but if the surface were less rugged and more fer- 
tile, it would probably just as well subserve those purposes. 
A far more sober conclusion would seem to be, that we have 
not as yet discovered much of the use of rocks. Perhaps 
they were piled away there for the present, to be brought 
out and used at the proper time and in the proper way, 
and it looks still more likely that there are forty or a hun- 
dred valuable uses to which they may be applied in future 
ages. 

Rocks are soluble ; and what other chemical susceptibil- 
ities they may have we do not know. With what degree 
of ease and facility they may be thrown into solution, or 
some other change of form, we can not now determine. 



CONCERNING ROCKS HILLS, AND DESERTS. 63 

Tliey are there, and they were placed there by Infinite wis- 
dom and perfect mechanical skill, governed by Iufinite be- 
nevolence. They were not made in vain. If the savages 
who roamed thoughtlessly over them, or the pioneer woods- 
man of these early ages who passes them by as worthless, 
or the school-boy who plays among them, have not discov- 
ered their uses, it is no evidence that they have no uses ; it 
is evidence only of our early occupation of the country, that 
the country is new to us, and its valuable properties are un- 
discovered. 

Were the great sandy deserts made for nothing? They 
present to us a sterile and unprofitable appearance, nor have 
they been appropriated to any profitable uses. And so of 
many plains known to be fertile; they are unused. Have 
one-half or one fourth, nay, have one-tenth, of our lands 
which are considered good for tillage, been subjected to any 
fair or proper agricultural use? I presume not. And as to 
some land being poor and some being rich, we do not know 
so well about that. We will endeavor to read a chapter on 
agriculture after awhile. At the present it may be sufficient 
to remark, that we have no conclusive evidence that some 
lands are absolutely richer and some poorer than others. 
Such appearances may be owing more to our mode of using 
them than to any thing absolute in the quality of 'the lands 
themselves. 

Much of the surface of the earth lies not only undulating, 
but is thrown into rugged steeps and almost inaccessible 
mountains. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," 
is still one of the laws under which we live. By this we 
understand that the earth and its furniture are given to us, 
not in a prepared state, ready for use, but in a state capa- 
ble of being rendered useful by labor and skill. Without 
labor the earth is useless; and, on the other hand, labor, 
properly directed, will render it useful almost if not quite 
indefinitely. 



64 DITTTTJRNITY. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SOME PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON ISAIAH, FORTIETH CHAP- 
TER AND FOURTH VERSE. 

" Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall 
be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and 
the rough places plain." 

From such criticisms as I have been able to examine, 
with the exercise of such judgment as I may have, I am 
not fully able to determine, with entire satisfaction, the full 
intention of the Divine mind in putting this prophecy into 
the mouth of Isaiah. It is, however, highly probable that 
it refers to more than one distinct thing. 

In a figurative or allegorical sense, it may refer to the sup- 
posed way or progress of the Lord, as he passes through the 
earth in the work of evangelization, and that preparation 
shall be made, as it were, by cutting down the hills and 
filling up the valleys before him. But whether it is or is 
not intended to have this meaning, it is quite probable that 
it may also have another and more natural and literal one. 

The earth as we find it, in what we call its natural state, 
is rough, rugged, and unfit for immediate use ; and still 
more is it unfit for that higher state of usefulness for which 
it may be prepared by skill and labor. To illustrate this 
idea, look at some particular spot. It is a precipitous, 
rocky, uninviting region, whose crags are irregular and 
nearly barren. Such valleys as it has are overflown quag- 
mires and swamps, intermixed with frog-ponds and bramble. 
The whole has the appearance of a useless waste. But now 
let this abode of reptiles, where the wild beast would 



PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON ISAIAH. 65 

scarcely deign to prowl, be approached by the patient 
hand of skill and labor. The swamps may be drained or 
filled up; rocks are excavated and replaced; the cliffs are 
smoothed into gentle slopes and beautiful terraces; elegant 
walks, falling cascades, rich fountains, and handsome prom- 
enades are seen on every hand; and lawns, meadows, rich 
fruits, and gay flowers spread their luxuries and beauties in 
all directions. 

Now, so far as this particular spot is concerned, it may 
be well said that its valleys have been exalted, its mount- 
ains made low, its crooked places straight, and its rough 
places plain. And the idea may perhaps aptly be applied 
to the surface of the earth universally. There is not a spot 
of earth that is not susceptible of improvement, far, very far, 
beyond any thing we have witnessed. Rills can be changed 
in their courses or divided into different channels, or be 
made to spread their waters at will, and so can rivers, lakes, 
or seas. Indeed, there is little or none of the surface of 
the earth, either land or water, excepting the large oceans, 
that does not require to be changed, smoothed, straightened, 
elevated, or made low, in order to be rendered useful to the 
extent of its natural susceptibility. 

And its susceptibility to this end is the measure and stand- 
ard of the design in its formation. This smoothing, arrang- 
ing process is already begun here and there, a very little, 
on a very small scale, in a few spots of earth. The reason 
why it has been carried no further is, because of the new- 
ness and uncultivated condition of our lands. We have 
made a few little roads, meadows, and gardens, but — we have 
but just got Ivere ! 

Let the world live long enough, and let the destroying 
hand of the ingenious manufacturers of prophecy be kept off 
it, and in time its entire surface will be graded, terraced, 
smoothed, and fashioned as human convenience may require. 
The elevations will be such as may be required ; the depres- 
sions will be as large and deep as needful; the brooks and 
6 



66 DXUTURNITY. 

even the rivers will be arranged as may be most conducive 
to our wants, and every valley shall be exalted, and every 
mountain and hill shall be made low. 

Where the eagle built her nest but a few years ago, and 
the wolf howled his angry answer to the winds, now stands 
a stately edifice, and the hum of wheels and spindles show 
that the hand of skill and industry was not invited there in 
vain. The perfection of these manufactories now comes fully 
up to our ideas of perfection ; but these wheels will be laid 
aside for those of more approved patterns, and then they 
shall be condemned as inferior and unsuited, to give place 
to others, which in their turn will be superseded by newer 
improvements. 

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." This 
is the law. The material for every useful purpose is here, 
prepared by Almighty power. Every knob contains a house ; 
every tree contains a machine, every bush a spoke to put 
somewhere; every handful of ore contains a knife, or a 
spade, or a watch. The paper on which I write is a pre- 
pared cotton-seed; my ink is another seed, and my pen is 
a piece of dirt. 

I want a lake, and I am going to make one to-morrow! 
Nature, in seeming unconsciousness, has almost made it al- 
ready. The ample basin, with its ample rim, is already 
lying out in. the pasture. A few cart-loads of earth will 
fill up a crevice in the rock at the bottom, and the clouds 
will supply the water, and the carpenter shall build the 
gondola ; and the beast shall wade in to his knees and slake 
his thirst, and wonder how a part of his grazing-ground has 
become a little sea. 

God prepares the hills and the valleys, the mountains and 
the plains, in a crude condition, and merely furnishes man 
the raw material with which to make a world. And man, 
with the sweat of his brow, is to make it. But while every 
thing necessary for the completion of this mundane system 
is prepared to our hand and carefully laid away, it is certain 



CONCERNING FORESTS AND UNUSED LANDS. 67 

there is no redundancy. Though it is only by the slow 
process of discovery and subjugation that we can ascertain 
what is prepared. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONCERNING THE PRESENT CONDITION OF FORESTS AND UN- 
USED LANDS COMPARED WITH THEIR EVIDENT DESIGN. 

The existence of a natural virgin forest is, of itself, al- 
most conclusive evidence of the world's juvenile condition. 
It was never appropriated to any good account. It was 
made, and there it lies still. Mankind, up to the present 
time at least, were just as well off without it. It has added 
nothing to the wealth and advantage of the world. It has 
filled up that much space upon the sphere, but if that is all 
that it has done, or is to do, then the sphere was made too 
large or this portion was made for nothing. 

We are so accustomed to see and hear of waste, unused, 
and desert land, that we look upon such things as matters 
of course, and pass them by as common-places. But when 
you come to look on the subject more carefully, or apply to 
it the touch of philosophic examination, it will appear un- 
natural. It is not derogatory to the plastic enterprise of 
Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, in arranging a world for the 
especial use and behoof of an intelligent race of beings, with 
the intention that it shall run its course and dissolve, to 
suppose that large districts — or small ones either — are to lie 
in a nude, lifeless, virgin, and unimproved state until the 
day of its doom, and receive its doom in its juvenile, new, 
and untamed condition? Some things may have been made 
merely to be looked at. It would seem natural enough to 
predicate this of roses and rainbows, but forests do not even 



68 DIUTTTRNITY. 

serve this purpose, and can not be placed in such category. 
Upon such a hypothesis we have large portions of the earth 
which hitherto have passed on in inert idleness, with noth- 
ing to do and doing nothing; with no purpose, no object, 
no end, no use ; to grow old in infancy, to yield no glory to 
God nor good to mankind. This is unnatural. The thought 
detracts from Grod's essential glory. It is unworthy his 
name and fame. 

And if these present are the latter days of the world, and 
these large regions are mere idle waste, or are to do no more 
good than they are now doing, then the earth is not only 
made larger than is necessary, but it is so large as to be 
greatly cumbersome, unwieldy, and inconvenient. This we 
are not at liberty to suppose. We are obliged to presume 
that it was made right; just right as to. size, material, of 
precisely the proper texture, and with complete harmony of 
all its parts. The hitherto unused forests of uncultivated 
regions, the Desert of Sahara, and the mountain steeps and 
gorges will, in time, be found to be as useful to mankind as 
the valley of Jordon, the plains of Mamre, or the rich cot- 
ton-fields of the South. That which is not used in one way 
will be in another. Every thing must tell why it was made, 
every thing must meet its purpose, and Grod be glorified and 
man benefited in all. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

AN INQUIRY RESPECTING THE POLAR REGIONS. 

And the very same reflections as those above must apply 
to the ice-bound regions of the high polar latitudes. They 
are "ice-bound" now, but it is the task of human science 
and enterprise to unlock those ice-chains and tame those cli- 



INQUIRY RESPECTING THE POLAR REGIONS. 69 

mates, and reduce those countries, and render them useful, 
and make them subserve the wise and profitable purposes 
of a wise and beneficent Creator. 

We know it is cold there now, and may presume it al- 
ways will be; at least we know nothing to the contrary. 
And yet, even in this, the future developments of history 
and of science may show that we are mistaken. Indeed, 
there are some indications that this may be probable. But 
we do not know that, therefore, these countries are abso- 
lutely uninhabitable. They are raw, crude, and unculti- 
vated, but we do not know but that electricity, or something 
else, may be discovered by which the inconvenience of cold 
may be measurably or wholly overcome. We know as yet 
but little of caloric or the laws governing it. We know 
that friction — friction of perhaps any thing — produces 
warmth, and we know there is warmth in the sun or in 
some way pertaining to it. There is warmth enough in 
friction, if it can be produced, or in the sun, if it can be 
conducted at pleasure, to render the polar regions warm 
enough. And we do not know but that certain kinds of 
food, clothing, and habits may do something toward giving 
powers of resistance to cold far beyond what our present 
experience suggests. 

These countries may possibly never, or for many ages, be 
permanently inhabited by settled residents, and particularly, 
perhaps, during the dark and cold season. Perhaps its oc- 
cupancy during the light summer months might answer 
every useful purpose. What habits, customs, pursuits, em- 
ployment may, in future ages, be found best for the de- 
velopment and appropriation of the natural properties of 
these countries, would be both idle and hazardous at this 
early period even to conjecture. But that these countries 
are mere ice-fields, sterile wastes, and excrescences upon the 
face of the word, is a reflection upon the wisdom and pru- 
dence of their Creator. The difficulties, whatever they may 
be, in the way of a thorough examination of these coun- 



70 DIUTURNITY. 

tries, will, no doubt, be removed or overcome in due time. 
The climate is tempered right, so that, harmonizing with 
other climates and countries, the greatest advantage may- 
result. 

As yet scarcely a step has been taken toward the develop- 
ment of any geological, botanical, or zoological riches the 
countries may possess or be capable of producing. And its 
very ice itself is a thing of which we know but little. Does 
it contain caloric? And, if so, how may it be educed and 
controlled? If the polar regions have not been subjected 
to scientific research and control, why. be it so. But it can 
not be doubted that science is equal to the task. This is 
our world, and it is our business to examine it and draw 
out its properties, and turn every one of them to good ac- 
count. 

Of the extreme north we know almost nothing. Dr. 
Kane, whose recent Arctic travels have attracted much at- 
tention, gives at least plausible reasons for the conjecture 
that a large region, of which the North Pole is the center, 
has a much milder climate than that of the lower Arctic 
latitudes. But as the world has not yet been discovered, 
of course we know little or nothing about it. This was the 
case only three and a half centuries ago with regard to this 
whole continent. 

It might be suggested that the shape of the earth, with 
its position to the sun and relation to the solar system, 
renders extreme cold near the poles necessary in order to the 
proper changes of seasons, the regulation of weather, etc., 
in the lower latitudes. That may all be very true, but it 
only removes the difficulty from one point to another, with- 
out, in the least degree, lessening it. For this very solar 
system, and all this extensively varied relation, even to a 
pebble or a leaf, the temperature of the sun's rays, and their 
transmission through the atmosphere, and their effect on 
the human system, all, all of this is but part and parcel of 
this very wise and benevolent creation about which we are 



INQUIRY RESPECTING THE POLAR REGIONS. 71 

discoursing. God, in creation, was surely not shut up to 
the necessity of placing this planet just so far from the 
sun, and of causing it to present just such and such ex- 
posures, and of giving heat just such and such power of 
impression upon animal and vegetable life. And, therefore, 
if certain trees and plants will not grow above certain lati- 
tudes, and if man and other animals can not endure cold 
in certain high climates, we must not conclude that these 
things are the result of necessities operating upon God, but 
that there is a wise and benevolent reason for all these 
things. God always acts with reason directed to the best 
possible ends. 

And, again, there is another hypothesis with regard to 
cold climates which possesses some plausibility at least. It 
is the opinion of some very sound writers on cosmological 
science, that the earth is gradually lessening its orbit round 
the sun; consequently it is approaching nearer and nearer 
to the sun. This process, while it may not cause the trop- 
ical regions to become inconveniently warm because of 
trade-winds, may — nay, it must — cause the climate of the 
frigid regions to grow more mild. And this may give tens 
of thousands, if not millions, of years of tolerably mild 
weather to the highest polar countries. 

We must not assume to know all that is predicable of 
cosmology until science exhibits the demonstration. 



72 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XX. 

AN INQUIRY RESPECTING THE PRESENT CONDITION OF MIN- 
ERALOGY. 

The science of mineralogy has been known and practiced 
since the earliest times ; and yet it is well known that but a 
step has as yet been taken in its advancement. Even in re- 
gard to such minerals as we are acquainted with, in procur- 
ing them we have made only a scratch upon the very sur- 
face of the ground, here and there, in a very few small spots, 
a hundred or a thousand miles apart. It is believed that 
there is now stored away, near or not far from the surface 
of the ground, an amount of mineral wealth absolutely enor- 
mous as compared with the actual discoveries we have made. 

The proportional quantity of metal the earth contains, 
which we have used, amounts to almost nothing. Was this 
vast amount of metal stored away in the hills and plains 
of the earth with the intention that only the one-hundredth 
or one ten-thousandth part should be used? 

Suppose we had the labor to spare for that purpose in 
this present age of the world, and were to procure from 
these rich mines a much larger quantity, say ten times as 
much as we now have, this would very materially change 
the affairs of the world. Commerce would run in new chan- 
nels ; navigation would be quite a different thing from what 
it is now; new fields of enterprise would open; new lines 
of industry would be formed ; almost all industrial pursuits 
would be affected and moved to its very center. 

A superficial observer might suppose that an increase 
ten-fold of iron or copper, for instance, would simply pro- 
duce a redundancy and a sluggish market. This would be 



AN INQUIRY RESPECTING MINERALOGY. • 73 

the case immediately and temporarily, but a further and 
still further supply would open out new and enlarged chan- 
nels of appropriation, and the flow, if increased, would ac- 
cumulate strength and demand attention, and force capital 
and industry to its support. If the quantity of iron were 
greatly increased, almost every thing would be made of iron ; 
and so of every other metal. It would open up and fill 
a hundred channels of employment not thought of now. It 
is difficult to produce a permanent redundancy of such ar- 
ticles as are susceptible of new and varied application. 

But a few years ago, a gentleman of Georgia inquired of 
an English merchant, in Liverpool, if he could find sale for 
so much cotton, the next year, as five or six hales, of three 
or four hundred pounds each. The reply was that a quan- 
tity so superabundant could not be sold in England. And 
yet the lifetime of a man scarcely passed away before five 
millions of such bales was no more than a supply for one 
year. 

I mention this to show what immense influence in the 
affairs of the world may be produced by the persistent in- 
troduction of a single article susceptible of a somewhat 
varied use. If iron, or copper, or brass, or zinc, lead, or 
any other metal were produced in abundance, it would sup- 
ply the place of other material wonderfully. Not only 
would houses and fences, furniture, railways, ships, high- 
ways, and the like, be made of it, but it would wonderfully 
stimulate new inventions, and develop and open up new 
channels of enterprise and improvement, which now lie dor- 
mant and undisturbed for the very lack of some such stim- 
ulant. We do not see until afterward how greatly some 
one article was needed, not only to be used by itself, but 
for an almost endless mixture or combination with others, 
thus urging on to other and still other developments. 

Suppose some of the precious metals, as they are called, 
should be supplied in abundance. And what good reason 
have we to conclude that they are as scarce, comparatively, 
7 



74 DIUTURNITY. 

as they seem? We "have as yet made but the merest and 
most superficial beginning toward an examination of the en- 
tire contents of the earth in this regard; and every step 
we have taken in this direction gives more and more indi- 
cation of the immensity of the wealth of the world in gold 
and silver ore. We have no solid reason to conclude that, 
for any great length of time to come, gold and silver will be 
used as a mere instrument ' for the measurement of com- 
mercial value. It has not been long since that iron was 
used as money. A little change in the ever-changing cir- 
cumstances of the world may cause something else to be 
used as money, or the disuse of money entirely. And, on 
the other hand, it may be that the quantity of gold, and 
may be silver, too, was so graduated as to quantity, and 
position. in the earth as to make them subserve the purposes 
of money so long as money may be needed. The proper 
quantity was placed here and there for the ends intended. 
There is not too much; there is not too little. It was made 
and placed there with design, and not without design. If 
you were to ask the maker of a wagon or a watch why he 
made so great a number of wheels and springs, he would 
explain to you the use of each one; and he will show you 
the reason why he put ten or fifty times as much metal in 
the one as the other. Or, if he be merely gathering the 
material for future use, he will show why he needs a ton 
of one kind and only a pound of another. And he will 
show you that an additional number of wheels in the one 
case, or of pounds or tons weight in the other, would be 
either an incumbrance or a vain and useless preparation. 

Very late discoveries are almost every day developing 
wonders in this department of science. Sometimes these 
discoveries are merely accidental — stumbled upon undesign- 
edly. But more careful geological surveys of ranges of val- 
leys and ridges are rapidly pointing out the lines of location 
of many of these immense store-houses of wealth. Recently 
we have information of most immense quantities of gypsum 



CONCERNING CAVES. 75 

in portions of the north-west of our own country. It would 
sound strangely enough now to talk of cities and countries 
being built up of the finest and purest alabaster. I am 
sure that I do not know that it will be done, nor that it 
would be desirable. But I am also sure that stranger things 
do happen by means of invention and discovery, and that 
even that may not look marvelous in years to come. It is 
beyond question that, in regard to mineral wealth, we have 
just begun to touch it at a few accidental points. In a few 
hundred years to come, or a few thousand, when man will 
look back to these days, and to the practical developments 
of science and industry now as the early hours of mere 
childhood in these respects, it will then, no doubt, be seen 
that, as a race, we have but just got here, and have taken a 
few incipient steps toward those developments of nature. 

And will any man say that, in the preparation of the 
material by Infinite Goodness and Wisdom for the future 
making of implements and buildings of all kinds, and other 
things, special respect was not had to quantity, kind, and 
arrangement? Man may be somewhat reasonable, but God 
is infinitely reasonable. The Infinite benevolence of God 
was wisely consulted in all this. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CONCERNING CAVES, AND THE LIGHT THEY THROW ON THIS 
SUBJECT. 

Fissures, underground passages, and caves, which now 
and then present themselves to sight, afford us a little op- 
portunity of seeing beneath the surface of the ground. Yery 
little is known of caves, because little or no exploration haa 



76 DIUTURNITY. 

even been attempted in that direction. But the little' ex- 
perience we have on the subject gives us a key to proba- 
bilities of a most interesting character. 

It has not been discovered that the surface of the ground 
in the vicinity of caves presents any remarkable appearances 
indicating a cavernous condition beneath. This renders it 
probable that caves may be much more numerous than is 
generally supposed. There is, probably, no good reason to 
conclude that one hundredth or a thousandth part of ex- 
isting caves have been discovered. 

These underground openings have as yet elecited little 
or no attention in the world. Of old there was one called 
Macphelah, which, aside from its noted mention in remote 
history, was. perhaps, a little affair. Lot and his daughters 
lived in a cave, as did Elijah the prophet. And in a few 
other places in Scripture history places of this kind are al- 
luded to. 

Man is the proprietor or tenant, not merely of the very 
outside surface of the earth, but of all the properties of its 
coating or skin, to an indefinite depth. But we can know 
nothing of what is so far beneath the surface as to be out 
of sight until we look and see. And a casual glance will 
give us but little information; we must go further, and sub- 
ject every thing there to the crucible of enlightened science 
and extensive analysis and combination. And it is very cer- 
tain that beneath the very cuticle we have discovered almost 
nothing of the substance of the earth. The very skin or 
veneer of the earth has been punctured but here and there 
very slightly, and in a few places to the depth of a few feet. 
Some of the furniture of the earth, prepared for our use by 
our Creator, was placed on the outer surface of the earth, 
above ground, and some beneath the surface a foot, or a 
mile, or, for aught that we know, at a much greater distance. 
Some was placed in the atmosphere and some in the water. 
Nor can we expect to profit by these things until we com- 



CONCERNING CAVES. 77 

ply with the law of labor, which law includes research, in- 
vention, and discovery in all the departments of practical 
and theoretical science. 

To suppose that the great magazines of subterranean 
wealth, or, indeed, any considerable portion of them, have 
been opened and examined, would be to suppose that which 
no well-informed man could believe. But just now we are 
not attempting to direct attention to geology so much as to 
a few intimations respecting that great subject, and some of 
its cognates, which the few caves we have discovered afford 
us. 

The "Mammoth Cave," in Kentucky, as it is called, fur- 
nishes us some few elementary lessons. Here you pass down 
a gentle slope into the side of a hill, by an entrance twenty 
or thirty feet wide and as many in height. After going a 
mile or so, the ways separate, the one of which will lead 
you about three miles, and the other about nine or ten 
miles, as far as they have been explored. It is very evi- 
dent, however, that only a portion of the cave is as yet dis- 
covered. In several places there are large caverns which 
have not been entered. The cave, so far as it has been 
traveled, is exceedingly uneven and irregular. Sometimes 
you are in narrow passways scarcely large enough to crawl 
through; again you are descending a narrow stairway forty 
or fifty feet; and again you are climbing heights until 
you will imagine yourself near the surface of the ground. 
Sometimes you are in large chambers, fifty or sixty feet high, 
in which the scenery is very grand and imposing. In these 
chambers, and other portions of this underground world, 
the immense quantities, varieties, kinds, and colors of crys- 
tallizations look very much like an A, B, C lesson, leading 
to something, and indicating matters of interest to future 
scientific explorations and examinations. Crystallography 
is a science which, in some of its branches, has had, perhaps, 
a fair share of the attention of men of science ; but it must 



78 DIUTURNITY. 

be confessed that, in its most practical and useful branches, 
but very little progress indeed has been made in it. 

Some remarkable properties of the air in caves, at least in 
the one just alluded to, is deserving of particular notice. 
It passes through the lungs with most wonderful ease and 
very pleasurable sensations. But its most wonderful char- 
acteristic is the great extent to which it wards off the ap- 
proach of muscular fatigue. Here is certainly a lesson for 
the naturalist and the physiologist. 

How far and under what circumstances fatigue, lassitude, 
weariness is necessary in laborious exercise, is an important 
question to mankind. Hitherto it has been looked into 
only subjectively, in a mere hygienic point of light; but is 
it certain it may not also be looked into from the direction 
of preparations or improvements in the breathing qualities 
of the atmosphere itself? 

To walk ten or fifteen miles, with but little rest, would 
be something of an undertaking for any person not much 
accustomed to walking long distances, even on a good road. 
But in the cave, fatigue from walking or other bodily exer- 
cise is almost out of the question. I once walked twenty miles 
in the cave in about eight hours, with little or no fatigue. 
Our party consisted of about twenty persons, more than 
half women and children — some of the litter not over five 
years old — and some elderly persons. One was a lady of 
upward of sixty years, and very fleshy. One would sup- 
pose she would scarcely walk a mile. And yet all per- 
formed the trip with ease; even the children did not com- 
plain. The old lady, all the way and to the last, declared 
she felt no fatigue. One lady was asthmatic, and ordinarily 
could not walk up stairs or on ascending ground without 
difficulty, and yet here she could walk up the roughest 
steeps and over ground all the way rough without feeling 
the least trouble from asthma. 

On returning, I could scarcely realize the truth of what 



CONCERNING CAVES. 79 

I saw and felt. We had walked more than twenty miles 
Over a road the roughest imaginable — indeed, some of the 
way was climbing up and down — and I felt as fresh and free 
from fatigue, almost, as when I started; and all the others 
expressed themselves the same way. But it was equally 
remarkable that, on coming to the fresh air, as we call it, 
outside, we all felt immediately a considerable degree of 
feebleness and lassitude, with some difficulty of breathing. 
It seemed to produce a sinking, sickening, or depressing 
effect. This feeling, however, passes off in a few minutes. 

These peculiar effects are common, I presume, to persons 
remaining a considerable time in the cave, though most 
persons pay little or no careful attention to them. In the 
cave, the temperature of the atmosphere is uniform winter 
and summer. 

Now, from these phenomena a number of very interesting 
suggestions seem to arise. 

What property possessed by this inside air gives to it 
these wonderful breathing and sustaining qualities? And, I 
might add, stimulating qualities, for they are stimulating 
and strengthening in a high degree. It is plainly notice- 
able in many places, six or eight miles in the ground, that 
currents of air are passing in many directions, in and out, 
through the many crevices and openings in the rocks. 
There is a chemical, or at least a philosophic reason why 
this inside air is so much more congenial to the lungs than 
the common outside air. Of the fact there can be no doubt. 
Is it owing to the currents passing through some mineral 
regions and thereby becoming favorably impregnated? These 
and many other questions in the premises lie at the door 
of science, and they must be answered. It will not do 
to say that they are mysterious things into which we can 
not penetrate. So is the multiplication-table mysterious, 
and can not be penetrated by those who do not understand 
it. The truth is, they are both naturally within the reach 
of science, and belong to its investigations. 



80 DIUTTJRNITT. 

Can this atmosphere, or the same or similar pulmonary 
results be produced by artificial means outside the cave? 

The air in this cave — whether it be the case in others I do 
not know — possessing, as it does, some valuable properties 
not common to outside air, it follows that, in some circum- 
stances in life, air does not perform all the offices for the 
benefit of the human system which nature must have in- 
tended primarily. And to ascertain the final capabilities 
of atmospheric air, and how to modify and educe them to 
the best advantage, is the business of science — a duty which 
it will no doubt perform after awhile. 

We have good reason to believe that the fewest number 
of existing caves have been seen and even partially ex- 
amined. Instances are common where a hole in the ground, 
sometimes perpendicular and sometimes entering a hill-side, 
has been well known to persons in the immediate vicinity, 
and some accident discloses a large cavern. The entrances 
to caves are generally insignificant and unattracting. For 
the most part, no doubt, they have no entrance. 

There is also very good reason for believing that many 
mountains, and perhaps all, are very cavernous. Perhaps 
it is not unsafe to believe that all mountains are hollow, to 
a great extent. In recent inquiries on this subject, I have 
been surprised to learn that there are very many large caves 
in the Cumberland Mountains, in Tennessee and Kentucky, 
which, in one sense, might be said to have been recently 
discovered. And yet their existence has been well known 
for many years to a few rude neighbors. Those regions are 
but partially settled, and by a rude and uncultivated peo- 
ple. In some instances known to me, persons have lived 
within a mile or two of openings into the side of hills dur- 
ing a life-time, and no one has had curiosity enough to en- 
deavor to enter it any distance; and recent searches for 
saltpeter have discovered that they could be entered easily 
for miles, with probable appearances that underground pas- 
sages are of almost indefinite extent. And these very brief 



AN INQUIRY RESPECTING FOSSIL COAL. 81 

examinations have discovered in some of them saltpeter 
enough, apparently, to supply the present wants of the 
world. And yet these immense beds of wealth, of proba- 
bly different kinds, have to the present hour lain hid away 
among the crags and bramble of mountains difficult of ac- 
cess. Some of these beds of saltpeter are to this day known 
but to perhaps half a dozen persons who have any sort of 
appreciation of them, or even curiosity on the subject. 

The probability is, that the entire range of the Allegha- 
nies is cavernous to a great extent; and that they contain 
salts of various kinds, particularly niter, and in immense 
quantities, is nearly certain. Those elements of wealth were 
placed there by the Divine hand, and, therefore, they were 
intended to be used by man for his advantage. Nothing 
was made in vain. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

AN INQUIRY RESPECTING FOSSIL COAL. 

The immense coal-beds which lie near the earth's sur- 
face are, of late years, beginning to attract some attention. 
The people who lived a few years before us, and whom we 
familiarly call ancients, knew but little or nothing about 
fossil coal. The mention of coal in the Scriptures has prob- 
ably exclusive reference to charcoal. Coal exists in almost 
all parts of the earth. The inconceivably immense quanti- 
ties of coal, its oily and highly inflammable character, and 
capability of producing great heat, with the variety of uses 
to which we are already capable of applying it, show that 
the great Creator has placed it within our reach for valuable 
and beneficent purposes. 

More than two-thirds of the world's present age had 



82 DIUTURNITY. 

passed away before this immense treasure was known to 
exist, or, at least, before it was used to any extent. 

It may be regarded as morally certain that coal is vege- 
table matter, and is formed by decomposition and petrifac- 
tion during what appears, to our limited comprehension, a 
very long period of unnumbered ages prior to the Adamic 
creation,' and while the globe was in a partially chaotic or 
formation state,, and long, long before it was put in its 
present arranged condition for the habitation of man. But, 
however it may have been formed, it is here, and both its 
existence and arrangement show that it is part of the furni- 
ture of this world, and is the result of the Divine wisdom 
and benevolence. 

The immense quantities of coal in all parts of the world, 
and the wonderful advances recently made in the use of it, 
indicate almost unmistakably that it is destined to become 
a very important agent in carrying forward the affairs of 
the world. Nevertheless, at the present time we use it to 
very great and apparent disadvantage. For mere lack of 
suitable mechanical arrangement, we waste a large propor- 
tion of the heat or light we produce. 

When mechanic arts shall become improved far beyond 
their present condition, fossil coal will cooperate with them 
in carrying on the enterprises of the world far, very far, 
beyond what they have now attained, and the usefulness of 
this property of earth will then be appreciated beyond any 
thing at present realized. 

If one had stood amidst the great primeval forests of a 
high geologic antiquity, away many ages beyond the Adamic 
creation, and had witnessed the gigantic growth of these 
successive forests of immense production, age after age, and 
with not a single vertebral animal either to subsist upon it 
or shelter beneath its great foliage, he might have inquired, 
Why is all this? To what use can those vast and ever-de- 
caying forests be applied? He would perhaps think there 
was a great waste of outlay, of design, and of production; 



CONCERNING SALT. 83 

but he would be more excusable than the man of the pres- 
ent day who reasons almost in the same way. If he could 
see the world again, even now, he would see that these vast 
forests are garnered away in coal-fields equal in magnitude 
and more apparent in design. He would see these coal-beds 
even now propelling machinery which is performing the 
work of five hundred millions of human persons. There 
was a far-reaching plan of benevolence in all this. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONCERNING SALT, ITS GREAT QUANTITIES, PRACTICAL 
USE, ETC. 

We need not stop to inquire whether common salt is, or 
is not, a constituent as well as a property or a part of the 
furniture of the earth. How far it may possibly be neces- 
sary in giving proper character to the atmosphere, to the 
gases, or in giving of vigor to animal or vegetable life, if 
it be at all necessary for these purposes, are questions which 
do not necessarily belong to this inquiry. The high prob- 
ability is that it is merely one of the useful articles with 
which the earth is furnished, and belongs in the catalogue 
of other useful things prepared for our use and comfort by 
our wise and benevolent Creator. 

Common salt is found in great quantities in almost all 
parts of the earth. The great mass of sea-water is strongly 
impregnated with it, while it is found, in its native crystal 
form, in numerous places; and subterranean saline water is 
known to be very abundant. Frequently it is found several 
hundred feet below the surface. 

In ancient times salt was regarded as an emblem of per- 
petuation or endless immutability. " A covenant of salt," 



84 DIUTTJRNITY. 

in inspired language, (Num. xviii: 19, and 2 Chron. xiii: 5,) 
means an everlasting covenant ; salt being the emblem of 
preservation from all false and corrupting taint forever. 

And from what we know of the chemical nature of salt, 
it may be a great agent of preservation, acting in an unseen 
but favorable way upon both animal and vegetable life. 

The quantity of salt in the world is vast beyond concep- 
tion. And this quantity is undoubtedly graduated to the 
final necessities of mankind, though as yet but a fraction 
of it has been disturbed in its original resting-place. 

The natural deposits of salt are in the forms of fossil, 
crystal, and solution ; and it is not known that it is sus- 
ceptible of change into some other form. However it may 
be used, diffused, or spread about in small quantities, and 
apparently consumed, it still retains one of its original forms 
of fossil, crystal, or solution, though it frequently changes 
from one of these forms to another, back and forth. 

Though deposits of salt have been discovered in all parts 
of the world, so far as discoveries have been made, they 
seem to be local and by no means generally diffused. But 
the universal distribution every-where, by the use of it, is 
constantly going on, and is destined, in the lapse of ages, to 
produce great changes, of which the present feeble condition 
of science gives but a bare intimation. Every bushel of salt 
taken from its deposit, and consumed, as we call it, by being 
eaten or otherwise, is only diffused among or mixed with 
other substances. These changes are not perceptible to us 
in the course of a few centuries, so feeble is our grasp of 
periodicity; but seeing that it still retains one of its origi- 
nal forms, it must, in the lapse of ages, produce great chem- 
ical results. 

Placed nakedly in the ground, in considerable quantities, 
it has a deleterious effect upon vegetation; but in smaller 
quantities, and when combined with other substances, it has 
sometimes a happy effect upon some kinds of vegetation. 
And seeing the indestructible nature of salt, it is not im- 



CONCERNING MINERAL WATERS. 85 

probable that, in the far-off future ages of the world, this 
gradual diffusion may work a great effect upon agriculture. 
. At least the salt is there, wisely proportioned to other 
things. "With it the world is properly seasoned, looking to 
its present and future condition. There is not too much; 
there is not too little. 

But up to the present age of the world the proportion of 
salt is out of and beyond all reasonable requirements. The 
one-thousandth part of it is not needed. Was there a mis- 
take about it, or was there no wise proportion observed in 
the supply ? The known facts lead necessarily to the con- 
clusion that things are in an incipient, immature, and unused 
condition. They look away through what seems to us an 
immensity of future years, to a ripened and more regular 
condition of things. The wisdom of Grod doth easily com- 
prehend it, though the weak perception of man flags and 
tires in the feeble effort to reach so far. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

CONCERNING MINERAL WATERS, THEIR QUANTITIES, KINDS, 
AND USES. 

There is not much known respecting mineral waters ; and 
the little we do know is merely historic rather than scien- 
tific. In truth, science has as yet displayed but little of its 
powers in this field of investigation. 

It is known that large quantities of the subterranean waters 
are impregnated, in greater or less degrees, with various 
mineral particles; and it is well known that most of these 
waters, so far as discovered, are highly useful antidotes to 
various diseases, and it is quite probable that the future 



86 DIITTUKNITY. 

demonstrations of science may prove that they all possess 
valuable medicinal properties. 

No effort, or next to none, has as yet been made to dis- 
cover mineral water; and it is a desideratum to find out 
some clue or opening policy by which such investigations 
may be entered upon. Hitherto these fountains and reser- 
voirs have been blundered upon accidentally. Indeed, as 
yet science has scarcely looked at the subject. Mere acci- 
dent has occasionally brought to light fountains of this sort 
of the most valuable kind. This much is well known. 

The popular, or even the scientific mind has not as yet 
thought it worth while to do more than to look upon these 
discoveries, when made, as a kind of accidental G-odsend. 
But there is more to be done. Some such questions as 
these naturally arise: What are the best uses to be made 
of all the different kinds ? How deep are their currents, or 
beds, under ground? May they be prevented, and how, from 
the unfavorable effects of contact with atmospheric air? 
How may they be certainly and readily discovered? Are 
they universally plentiful in all places ? What are the dif- 
ferent kinds? How may they be brought readily to the 
surface? Have they fountains in the deep bowels of the 
earth sufficient to supply all the world, in all needful quan- 
tities? and what are their various uses and intentions? 
These and other practical and scientific questions respecting 
mineral waters have got to be answered ; the world has got 
to know these questions and answers well, and the knowl- 
edge has got to be reduced to practical advantage, before 
the wisdom and goodness of God can be vindicated properly 
Id the premises. 

Things which now lie away in the unopened depositories 
of earth were deposited there, and there they were intended 
to remain until the wants, the industry, and the knowledge 
of man should call them forth. They compose part of the 
furniture of earth, just as pipes and faucets, in the different 



CONCERNING HOT SPRINGS. 87 

parts of the house, compose part of its furniture for the 
supply of the establishment with warm and cold water, etc., 
for the practical use of the family. 



HAPTER XXV. 

CONCERNING HOT SPRINGS AND OTHER UNDERGROUND PHE- 
NOMENA. 

Closely akin to the things looked at in the preceding 
chapter is the subject of warm and hot water issuing out 
of the cold ground. This is another subject of deep mo- 
ment to mankind, and upon which science has, as yet, told 
us almost nothing. 

How are these waters heated? Do they pass through or 
come in contact with fire? Is there living fire in the bowels 
of the earth? We know nothing of fire except that which 
is produced by friction or a concentration of the rays of the 
sun, and exists by means of atmospheric air. How can fire 
or any kind of concentrated caloric exist in the deep bowels 
of the earth? And yet it is nearly certain that much if 
not all of the deep interior of the earth is a mass of molten 
fire. 

Some of this water comes out of the ground almost or 
quite boiling hot. Is the furnace that heats it near the 
surface? Is the earth a globular shell filled with fire or 
hot water? Or what is the condition of things a little way 
beneath the surface? Of these things geology answers a 
little and promises more. 

Is the race of mankind to occupy this earth, to live and 
die upon it, and not be able to answer such questions as 
these? If so, then we should cease to consider ourselves a 



88 DIUTURNITY. 

very "intelligent" race. A school-boy, who had graduated 
and entered upon the duties of life, should be expected to 
know something of \;he house in which he was educated. 

And then our previous suggestions introduce many prac- 
tical and philosophic inquiries respecting this warm and hot 
water itself. It is known to be highly beneficial, if indeed 
it is not a specific, for many human maladies. But how, 
when, and why to apply it, and with or without combina- 
tion with other agencies, who can tell? 

Was this water placed underground, some cold, some warm, 
and some hot — variously impregnated with other substances — 
in thousands and millions of streams, lakes, and reservoirs, 
there to float about, unseen and unknown, for the space of 
a few centuries, and mankind have no part nor interest in 
the wonderful enterprise? 

No, indeed! The thought reflects injuriously upon the 
Divine wisdom and prudence. These internal fires were 
built for man's use, and these waters were warmed and kept 
warm for beneficial purposes; and it is our right and our 
duty to call upon human science and human industry to 
answer all natural and needful questions respecting them. 
And in due time, but not in premature haste, we confidently 
expect a faithful and satisfactory answer. 

On these subjects we have the well-indorsed promises of 
geological science, and we must wait her researches and de- 
velopments. 



EARTHQUAKES, THEIR DESIGN, ETC. 89 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

AN INQUIRY RESPECTING EARTHQUAKES, THEIR DESIGN, ETC. 

Here is another phenomenon which belongs to our habi- 
tation, of which we as yet know but little. It is looked 
upon as a wild, frightful, erratic visitant, casting terror and 
danger around in every direction. To us, in these twi- 
light ages, it appears occasionally among us, a lawless, 
ungoverned, and ungovernable monster, strewing life and 
property in wild confusion in every direction, casting cities 
into the deep, sinking hills into the earth, and belching up 
mountains from the bowels of the deep. In the still more 
frightful form of volcanoes, it seems to observe some very 
general rules ; but still it is more frightful and terrific to 
man than pestilence, sword, and famine. 

The common notion seems to be that the immensity and 
monstrosity of earthquakes carry them away, away beyond 
human calculations, as to their character or operations. Al- 
most all we know about them is to be terrified at their ap- 
proach. We fear them almost as we would fear the wreck 
of matter. But of their character, if they have any, their 
course, or their reasons, we know but little, and seem to be 
perfectly content with our ignorance. 

And yet earthquakes are certainly a regular part of the 
providential phenomena of our world, as much so as the mild 
and seasonable opening of a rose. They are the proper 
and legitimate effects of certain natural causes, and in them- 
selves, if we knew their character, as harmless as the gentle 
dew of evening. They require to be understood. 

When the first rain fell upon the earth, the people were 
most probably alarmed with wild apprehension; and when 
8 



90 DIUTURNITY. 

the sky above them belched forth in hoarse and unintel- 
ligible bellowings, threatening instant destruction to all 
around, did not the people fly in amazement, unless, per- 
chance, their fears may have been quelled by some direct 
Divine information? 

Yery recently geology — that infant giant of science — has 
informed us a little with regard to the molten condition of 
the interior of the globe, and that it is very nearly if not 
quite certain that earthquakes are the result of the expan- 
sive and convulsive action of these pent-up molten oceans. 

0, is.it not wonderful that we lived six thousand years 
in the world before we began to inquire of geology, of even 
the alphabet of its great and wonderful profession? Even 
now it promises, with the most satisfactory indorsements, 
that almost immediately, within a single age or two almost, 
to lead forward the student of nature into positions whence 
he shall look back to this very day as a school-boy day in 
respect of, at least, some of the great and valuable fields of 
thinking ! 

We have already taken some little incipient steps toward 
the control of lightning, or of something very nearly con- 
nected with its causes ; at least so much so as to render it 
highly probable that the lightnings of heaven are not en- 
tirely beyond the reach of science. But a very few years 
ago this was deemed quite impossible. But we have lived 
long enough to know that many impossibilities, so said, 
have become commonplaces. 

I know of nothing that renders it improbable that earth- 
quakes and volcanoes will, in due time, be brought under 
the observation and rules of science. They belong to the 
system of nature. They are a part of the machinery of 
this world, and, therefore, a proper part necessary to its 
completeness. How they are to be used or directed, or how 
they are to be geared into other agencies, are questions 
which science must answer. Science is bound to answer 
them, because they belong to its natural mission. 



AGRICULTURE — ITS PRESENT CONDITION. 91 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

RESPECTING AGRICULTURE— ITS PRESENT CONDITION, ETC. 

The most ancient pursuit of industry among men, of 
which we have any account, is agriculture and husbandry. 
"And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of 
the ground." From that time to the present, agriculture 
has been pursued in all parts of the world more generally, 
more regularly, and more profitably, too, than any other call- 
ing. It has been neglected, as a leading and honorable pur- 
suit, only by savage tribes, here and there, for a time. 
And yet it is but truth to say that, up to the present pe- 
riod, not much improvement has been made in this branch 
of industry. 

Thirty-five hundred years after agriculture began to be 
pursued, we find Cincinnatus, one of the greatest and most 
practical men of Rome, plowing with an ox and a crooked 
stick; and at the present day, a very large portion of man- 
kind are pursuing agriculture about in that same way. In 
some comparatively small districts, comprising some of the 
best parts of Europe and North America, some improve- 
ment has been made in agricultural implements, and other- 
wise some little advances have been made. 

Agriculture is called a science, and yet science has, as 
yet, done very little for it. With more than ninety-nine 
hundredths of mankind it is a mere experience, and with 
them not much more is known now than was known to the 
antediluvians. And in the extensive countries of the north, 
the west, and the south of North America, of Central and 
South America, of Asia and Africa, as well as the vast 



92 DIUTURNITT. 

islands of the sea, not much advance has been made either 
in implements or the mode of using them. 

Very recently some little improvement has been made, 
in some small districts, in labor-saving machinery, in seed- 
sowing, harvesting, etc. ; and in motive power there have 
been some successful experiments. And this is the sum of 
agricultural development so far in this world. 

And has science demonstrated any thing with regard to 
the producing powers of the different kinds of soils? So 
far from it, it is not known to-day that some lands possess 
less or more producing power than others. We call some 
land poor and some rich, but no man knows that this is 
true. 

Some lands, uniformly rated very poor, present unmis- 
takable evidence of richness, though they will not, in their 
present condition, with our mode of tillage, produce corn or 
other farm products. See the pine forests of this country. 
The evidence of richness is, that they produce a heavy forest 
of very resinous timber. Their productive capacity is, there- 
fore, established. 

Then this supposed poverty of soil is only contingent 
and relative. "What evidence it might give of a producing 
capacity for other products, under other regimen, or com- 
binations, or tillage, which we have not applied to it, we 
do not know. 

And, moreover, soil is only one of the general agents in 
the production of vegetables. The atmosphere has much 
to do in their production. Water is also necessary. 

It is the province of agricultural science to inform us 
how plants are produced; not merely to compound earths 
by mechanical divisions or ingredients, but to show us what 
is used, how these ingredients are changed in forming the 
growth of the several plants, in what these changes consist, 
and what essences produce growth. 

Vegetable growth is chemical formation. Chemistry can 
tell us now of what an apple, a potatoe, and a grain of 



AGRICULTURE — ITS PRESENT CONDITION. 93 

wheat consists; but agriculture ought to tell us of what 
they are severally produced. Is humidity necessary to veg- 
etable growth, and why? 

A grain of corn, a seed of pepper, and an acorn are planted 
in the same soil, within a few inches of each other. So 
they are supported by the same soil and atmosphere, and 
yet their products are very dissimilar. One seed is the 
agent in the manufacture of corn, another of pepper, and 
a third of an oak ; and yet they all three use the same 
materials. How are a hundred different products made of 
the same materials? 

And, further: How far is earth necessary in the pro- 
duction of vegetation? and how small a quantity will suf- 
fice in this or in that? It is well known that some vege- 
tables are- produced, or can be, without the use of earth. 
Irish potatoes can be thus produced. 

This suggests the practicability of vegetable reproduc- 
tion, or certain classes thereof, with the use of but little 
or perhaps no earth. No man possesses the necessary in- 
formation as to the productive capacity of an acre, or a 
bushel, or a pound of earth. The most reasonable proba- 
bility is, that the ultimate productive capacity of the 
ground — or, perhaps, I had better say, of the materials of 
which it is composed — is far, very far away beyond any 
experiments which we have made in these incipient begin- 
nings. 

It seems apparent that agriculture has scarcely com- 
menced its great course of usefulness to mankind. 



94 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THERE IS EVIDENT DEFECT OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF 
AGRICULTURE. 

That which most closely conforms to nature is most 
scientific and most philosophic, as well as most truthful, in 
all things. The chief difficulty is, however, that the visible 
processes of nature and art are so dissimilar that it is not 
easy to determine, in all eases, what is a conformity to or 
departure from the natural procedure. But this may gen- 
erally be determined with reasonable clearness. 

Nature is an agriculturist, though acting in a different 
field and with different ends in view from man. Still we 
must conclude, a priori, that nature follows the general laws 
of vegetable reproduction, and thus reaches the end by the 
best and shortest means. 

And applying this reasoning to the common processes of 
agriculture, it suggests the inquiry as to the correctness of 
some of our most general modes of tilling the soil; and at 
the first glance we see much back action and positive injury 
to the soil, not by causing the land to produce, but by the 
mode of cultivation. 

The plan of nature, by which she produces more than 
double and generally five times the quantity the farmer does, 
is to keep the surface of the ground covered up carefully 
and closely, and to use thus, as a means of covering, the 
very thing which is extracted from the ground, thus re- 
turning to the land the properties or qualities taken from 
it; while, at the same time, this return in kind furnishes a 
covering for the ground, by which means a dense humidity 
of the atmosphere is kept up close on the surface, excluding 



DEFECTIVE AGRICULTURE. 95 

the sun and atmosphere. And so the decomposition of 
this covering proceeds somewhat rapidly; and as not much 
of its grosser substance is carried away by the wind, the 
vigor and healthfulness of the soil is preserved. 

But we, in doing the same thing, pursue the contrary 
course to a considerable extent. We strip the bosom of 
the ground bare, exposing its surface to the passing winds 
and scorching rays of the sun ; and not only so, but we dig 
up its skin with a plow and expose the entire coating to the 
same debilitating influences of the sun and air ; and we do 
this repeatedly through the course of the year. 

Every intelligent farmer well knows that this does con- 
siderable injury to the land. He knows that it is this 
mode of cultivation that wears out land, and not the mere 
production by itself considered. But he does not know how 
to avoid the positive injury he sees and perpetrates. But, 
with all his tillage, plowed land does not produce half, gen- 
erally not one-fourth, and oftentimes not one-tenth so much 
as that which is not plowed. The annual growth of wood 
alone, in forest trees, is much greater than many suppose. 

Agriculture is defective, and the proof of it is that the 
husbandman can not produce to the extent of the natural 
capacity of the soil. The defect is palpable, but we know 
not how to remedy it. We must live longer and learn 
more. We must subject the various agents employed to a 
far more searching examination. We are not at liberty to 
suppose that God gave to any of these agents a power which 
was not to be used for man's benefit. 



96 DIUTIIRNITY. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

CONCERNING RAIN, AND HOW FAR SCIENCE MAY CONTROL IT. 

Rain is a phenomenon so common that every body seems 
to know all about it, or all that can be known; and yet there 
are many things very intimately and very practically con- 
nected with it of which we know very little. 

The only notice intended of the subject here is, to sug- 
gest the inquiry whether its control is probably within 
human reach. Yery little inquiry has been directed to this 
point. The popular notion is, that the operation of the 
clouds so as to produce rain is clearly beyond our reach; 
but this conclusion is not reached by any course of philo- 
sophic inquiry, and, therefore, can not be conclusive. 

Rain as a casualty, is produced irregularly, but by regular 
philosophic causes; and all these agents are near at hand. 
It is not like something in the heavens, thousands and mill- 
ions of miles distant. Clouds are always at or very near 
the earth's surface, especially those containing much vapor, 
because the warmer the atmosphere, the greater its capacity 
to contain water ; and the rule, with some little fluctuations, 
is, that the higher you proceed from the earth, the colder is 
the atmosphere. 

Rain is produced mainly by the meeting and commingling 
of two or more clouds of different temperature, and con- 
taining different quantities of water in proportion to their 
bulk. It is not only the rule that the higher the tempera- 
ture the greater the capacity of the atmosphere to contain 
water, but this capacity increases in a much faster ratio than 
the increase of the temperature. It therefore follows that 
the mingling of two clouds, fully charged with water of 



CONCERNING RAIN. 97 

different temperatures, would produce rain, because the mean 
temperature of the two clouds, now formed into one, has a 
less capacity than they both had when separate. This sur- 
plus of water must fall to the ground. 

All this is generally done within a few hundred feet of 
the earth's surface, and oftentimes, in hilly regions, below 
the surface of the adjacent mountains. Then, to produce 
rain, you have only to create a warmer current of air, and 
let it commingle with the clouds above. The material for 
all this is at hand and abundant. Show me how to sepa- 
rate the constituents of the atmosphere, and to control the 
flames that would inevitably ensue, and rain may be pro- 
duced at pleasure; and we do use these materials to some 
extent for other purposes. 

To the vulgar mind every thing that has not been done 
is impossible; but a man of science will not decide any thing 
impossible until science itself discovers the barrier in the 
form of a contradiction. 

Upon the whole, the high probabilities are that, in future 
ages, we will not see what is now in plain sight of my win- 
dow, and which is indeed not a very uncommon thing — a 
corn-field, with half-grown corn suffering and almost dying 
for lack of moisture, with abundance of moisture near at 
hand. This looks like a bungling, half-way mode of doing 
things, and does not comport with the highly philosophic 
plan upon which such a world as this must have been built. 

9 



DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CONCERNING MEDICINE— THE SMALL DISCOVERIES MADE IN 
THIS DEPARTMENT. 

We speak of the science of medicine, and yet it is well 
known that very few things in medicine, in its various 
branches, are reduced to a science. Experience has, how- 
ever, taught us a good deal in the use of materials, regi- 
men, etc., in the cure or mitigation of disease, and yet it is 
evidently in a crude, beginning state. 

The slow progress which the cure of disease is making 
in the world is probably owing to the following causes : 
First, diseases change, or seem to change, rapidly and con- 
siderably in their character and diagnosis ; secondly, there 
is probably a much more close connection between physical 
disorganization and mental condition than is generally sup- 
posed ; and, thirdly, it is likely, or at least possible, that 
what we call disease or physiological derangement, possesses 
some primary or necessary characteristics which are not yet 
discovered. Our knowledge of disease is rather of its effects 
than of the thing itself. 

No specific has been discovered for any disease. A medi- 
cine cures or seems to cure in one instance, and fails in 
another. The practice of medicine changes very rapidly 
sometimes. That which is prescribed by almost every body 
now, is discarded by every body in ten or twenty years. 

Medicine has not yet gone beyond the school system ; 
and so, at the present time, we have several schools of 
medicine, and among the fellows of the same school we 
often see men pursuing radically different remedies for the 
same disease. This argument would, however, by no means 



MECHANIC ARTS IN A CRUDE STATE. 99 

prove any thing against either the science or practice of 
medicine, as surface debaters would be likely to use it. It 
proves only that the science is in its beginning state. 

It is well known that the mind, in its different states and 
dispositions, has very much to do with the health of the 
body; but steps of a scientific character have scarcely been 
attempted in that direction. It is not unreasonable to pre- 
sume that developments in this line may entirely overturn 
and throw behind us all our present knowledge of medi- 
cine. 

It is but very recently that pathology has begun to as- 
sume the rank of a special department of medical science. 
And it must be confessed that as yet not much progress has 
been made in investigating the nature and causes of disease. 
Proximate causes, not far distant, are discernible both by 
science and observation; and more remote causes, though 
still proximate, may perhaps easily be deduced. So that 
the adult condition of this valuable science must be away 
somewhere in the future. 

We are perusing the great volume of Human Progress. 
Medicine is one of its natural chapters; and the most we 
can say is, that we have commenced it, have read its title- 
page, and perhaps a very few other pages. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE MECHANIC ARTS ARE IN A CRUDE, BEGINNING STATE. 

Mechanism and the arts seem to have made more progress 
in the world than other branches of human pursuit. Much 
progress has been made within the last fifty years. And 
yet steam-power, telegraphic transmission, and daguerreotype 
painting are evidently in the infancy of their career. Steam 



100 DIUTURNITT. 

promises to perform almost all heavy labor, and yet we cer- 
tainly see nothing to discourage the supposition that it may 
be superseded by atmospheric pressure for all purposes of 
motive force. Certainly all motive power with which we 
are acquainted works to great disadvantage. 

At this moment I wish to build a house and a fence, and 
have plenty of good material at hand ; but I know of no 
way to use it but by first doing great injury to my build- 
ing-stone. For lack of mechanical power easily applied, I 
must first break my fine large stone up into bits of a pound 
or a ton in weight, thus rendering it less sightly and less 
durable. I want a machine, easily managed and of sufficient 
power to take rocks from the hill-side, of almost any size, 
cut them into any desired shape, and place them. A few 
pieces will build a house. An inconsiderate man would say 
that this was impossible; but it is certainly not. It is only 
impracticable, for mere lack of mechanical means and adapta- 
tion. 

Machinery does not generate force ; it only applies and 
controls it. Of power itself we know little or nothing. 
We see its effects; but power belongeth unto Grod. The 
extent and complication of mechanical forces are perhaps in- 
definite. Archimedes, who lived only two thousand years 
ago, was said to have been the most inventive man of an- 
tiquity. He thought he had carried the power of machinery 
to the extent of its capacity, and he would no doubt have 
pronounced so simple a thing as an auger that would bore 
a square hole an impossibility. 

Invention creates nothing; it only gears isolated things. 
The present mode of telegraphing alone has almost opened 
a new era in some departments of human affairs ; and yet 
we know almost nothing about it. The mere battery is a 
very simple machine; but no man knows how the result i3 
produced at the other end of the wire. It is not probable 
that any thing is transmitted along the wire. 

We see invention following close on the heels of inven- 



DURABILITY OP BUILDING MATERIAL. 101 

tion, and discovery pushing on discovery, and that nine- 
teen-twentieths of the world is very far behind these im- 
provements ; and this alone proves this most important 
department of human growth to he in its very infancy. It 
is very easy, - indeed, to mark mere positive progress, but the 
proper inquiry here is, to compare the present stage, not 
with the past, but with the evident designs of Infinite Good- 
ness and Wisdom. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

CONCERNING THE DURABILITY OP BUILDING MATERIAL, AND 
THE SMALL DISCOVERIES WE HAVE MADE IN IT. 

It is noteworthy, in this connection, that no buildings 
or monuments of a very durable character have as yet been 
erected by man. In a few instances buildings last two or 
three hundred years or more, but for the most part they 
decay in less than a century. The ruins of ancient cities, 
tombs, fortifications, etc., give evidence of some durability, 
though in nearly all cases it is impracticable to determine 
the age of these ruins. Cities were so frequently destroyed 
and rebuilt, that it can not be determined whether the ruins, 
as seen now, belong to later or more remote ages. 

The most durable buildings among the ancients seem to 
have been made of stone or brick ; but how these brick were 
made we do not now know. Our best information goes to 
show that they were first made into mortar and then dried 
in the sun. 

The Tower of Babel is believed to be the oldest building 
known to exist. This was originally built perhaps five hun- 
dred years or so after the flood; but some centuries after- 
ward it was either finished or partially rebuilt. How much 



102 DIUTURNITY. 

of the original building still remains, if any, is unknown. 
It was, mostly at least, built of brick, some of which were 
kiln-dried, but mostly dried in the sun. These brick lie 
there still, unprotected from the weather, as they have been 
for three thousand years, and are in a perfect condition. 
Some are petrified, some are vitrified, and others still re- 
main as originally made. 

Almost all ancient structures are long since wholly de- 
cayed. In some few periods and in some things our fathers 
excelled the present age in this respect, though extensive 
durability in buildings marks generally no era of the past. 
Modern brick last but a few years, and painting soon grows 
dim and gives way under the action of the atmosphere. 
Have we lost these arts? Has the march of science turned 
backward? Is the world becoming less useful to man before 
he has penetrated one-thousandth part of its archives? No! 

These instances of seeming retrograde movement are but 
little irregularities, which happen from ignorance, temporary 
literary declension, etc. The general course of science and 
art is onward. 

Geology, as a science, is so very infantile that it has given 
us but very little information on this subject. But for all 
practical purposes, it would seem that earth, rocks, and the 
grosser metals are sufficiently durable, if we had some way 
of using earth, and of manufacturing rocks and metals; and 
in these directions science is making progress which ought, 
perhaps, to be satisfactory. The future will gradually open. 

"Wood is also one of the most indestructible materials 
known to us, and yet, in the way we use it, it decays rapidly. 
If we knew some mode of preventing it from receiving moist- 
ure, by petrifying or vitrifying it, or of putting it in the form 
of charcoal without weakening it, it would be a hundred- 
fold more useful than it is. This must and will be done. 



CONCERNING OIL. 103 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

CONCERNING OIL, WITH CONJECTURES AS TO THE PROBABLE 
SUPPLY, USES, ETC. 

Webster's Dictionary defines oil to be " an unctuous 
substance expressed or drawn from various animal and vege- 
table substances." How miserably defective that definition 
has proved to be in less than twenty years! 

Until very recently oil was not known, except as it was 
derived from animal and vegetable substances. But recent 
discoveries show that vast lakes of oil lie in the ground but 
a few feet beneath the surface. It is probably native prim- 
itive oil; and though as yet it is chiefly used for burning 
purposes, because it is more volatile than many other oils, yet 
there can be no doubt of its susceptibility of being manu- 
factured so as to answer all the purposes of common oils. 
There is every reason to believe that as yet the discoveries 
are comparatively small." Quite likely it exists generally 
underground, by going a little deeper. 

As yet these discoveries have attracted the attention of 
the mere mercenary money-makers ; but they must soon en- 
gage the attention of mankind, and particularly the scientific 
world, for this great increase in the supply of so important 
an article must materially affect the entire industrial and 
social fabric. 

The laws of commerce, whether conventional or statutory, 
are based on the relative quantities of commercial commodi- 
ties. The disturbing of this relation, then, in any impor- 
tant particular, must change the currents of commerce ma- 
terially. We must by no means confine our reasoning here 
to the mere present consumption of oil. Its indirect effects, 



104 DIUTURNITT. 

stimulating present pursuits, and bringing new ones into 
being, will be ten or a hundred-fold greater than these. 

Most assuredly, an extensive cosniological programme is 
connected in more ways than we now see with these vast oil 
lakes, and in due time it will tell upon the world — not sud- 
denly nor violently, but in a far-reaching extent. They 
were placed there for use — for something, not for nothing. 
They are a part of an extensive programme of wisdom and 
benevolence, but the merest fraction of which has as yet 
transpired. 



SECTION THIRD 



We now proceed to look at the world in it its intel- 
lectual aspects. We have summoned forward for exami- 
nation a few things which pertain to what may be termed the 
furniture of the world, and we have glanced briefly at their 
natural character, their several relations to other things, and 
the obvious and unmistakable end of their creation. Keep- 
ing in view, at every step as we proceed, the great axiom 
on which this entire argument rests; viz., the Wisdom and 
Goodness of God, and the necessary deduction therefrom ; 
that having made this world for man, and formally placed it 
in his possession, it must have been arranged in a way best 
calculated to benefit its possessor. Looking at these prop- 
erties of the earth in this light, we find every one we look 
at — and we might have looked at hundreds more — in a 
new, unused, unimproved, beginning state. Not one has 
performed any thing like what its obvious character aDd 
nature promise. They all unite in testifying to a new, 
crude, beginning state. 

But the world has, also, a more subjective and intel- 
lectual aspect; and we proceed now to look at it a little 
in this point of light. It is very true, we can not desig- 
nate and describe the accomplishment or perfection in any 
of these things, for we have not been there, and so have no 
experience. But we can look forward very safely to some 
future degrees of improvement from the nature of the thing 
and the little experience we have. 

(105) 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

WHAT IS THE PROPER MISSION AND END OP SCIENCE? 

Art, depending as it does upon practice, is necessarily 
progressive. Sculpture, painting, and music, for instance, 
are arts. They can never be brought to perfection, because 
their degrees of advancement, in a high state, depend upon 
different tastes. Art can have no ultimate standard by 
which its completeness can be determined. 

But this is not the case with science. Science has cer- 
tain definite things to do, and when that is accomplished 
it can do no more of that thing. Science determines with 
certainty. That is its office. 

But we must keep a clear distinction between science and 
art. Some confusion has taken place in letters because au- 
thors have not invariably done this. Agriculture is called a 
science. It is both a science and an art. The former deter- 
mines its principles, analyzes its soils and plants, points out 
their relation, and determines how and why tillage should be 
conducted. But it is an art to handle a plow or sow seed 
properly. In building, science points out exactly what ma- 
terial is to be used and how to reach a given end; and art 
uses its fingers dexterously to meet these requirements. And 
so music is both a science and an art; but they work as in- 
dependently in the same as in different subjects. 

Pure science, as it is called, relating to the various 
branches of mathematics, rests upon self-evident truths, we 
are told. And this is really the case, we ought to be told, 
with all science; the difference being, that in the one case 
we comprehend the subject fully, and in the other we do 
not. Mathematics is a simple thing, naturally comprehen- 

(107) 



108 DIUTTJRNITT. 

sible; while the other sciences are as yet penetrated but a 
small way. 

The science of astronomy, for instance, is in itself per- 
fect and determinate, whether we know much about it or 
not. All questions in astronomy are, in themselves, as fully 
capable of being answered as the simplest question in arith- 
metic. The subjective character of a science is one thing; 
our proficiency in it is quite another. 

Then what is the proper natural mission of science in 
this world? Or, in other words, what is the proper use 
which man is to make of science? We are not to answer 
this question with reference to any particular age of the 
world, nor to any particular attainments made here or there. 

Men of science are much in the condition of a school- 
boy. They understand well the lessons they have learned, 
the laws they have tested, and of those now in hand, which 
they are trying to evolve. Of the scope of these they have 
an imperfect conception, at least in outline; and the great 
questions of the age now are, how to master these sub- 
jects. But of many things still beyond, there is but a 
bare glimpse: the conception is feeble — even the outline is 
beyond the mental grasp. 

Still we know there are fields yet before us unexplored 
of almost limitless extent. Who does not see that the al- 
phabet of geology, for instance, is as yet scarcely mastered 
by the most learned? 

We must not compare the acnievements of science^ with 
the past. This proves nothing. Nor yet must we compare 
them with such advances as we conceive or judge to be at- 
tainable. Our very lack of further knowledge and expe- 
rience is the reason why we can not prescribe to ourselves 
distinct lessons to be learned. We are again like the school- 
boy. You undertake to explain to him lessons in the higher 
branches, and he does not understand you. 

Our attainments in any particular science has no more 
to do in determining the character of the science, than has 



WHAT IS THE MISSION AND END OF SCIENCE? 109 

the attainments of the school-boy, who has not yet learned 
the multiplication table, to do in determining the extent of 
the science of figures. The science of geology, for ex- 
ample, comprehends all the facts and principles in that de- 
partment of knowledge. It is the proper mission of ge- 
ology, therefore, to impart to mankind all its truths and all 
its treasures. And so of the other sciences. The limit of its 
lessons is the extent of man's capacity to know. 

I am aware that what we call science is but the name of 
the collection of these, general principles or truths as they 
relate to this or that particular subject. And I use the 
word in this sense. These different departments of knowl- 
edge present to the understanding a great variety of truths, 
facts, and principles, which, to a certain extent, are capable 
of being understood. These truths, facts, and principles 
are both speculative and practical. In the former aspect, 
they assist man in understanding other truths and princi- 
ples; but in their practical bearings they assist man in 
using this world as not abusing it. There is not one of them, 
of all the countless millions, if one man could know them 
all, which would not be useful to him in making his bread, 
in clothing his body, in healing his wounds, should he have 
any, in prolonging his life, and in making him useful every 
day in every thing. Science looks exclusively to human 
advantage, and seeks to perfect every thing. And its deeper 
lessons, which will not probably be studied for thousands 
of years to come, must be as full of practical profit as its 
more elementary teachings. The most learned men feel 
and realize their exceeding juvenile condition as learners 
more than the partially learned. 

When man's natural capacity — not his mere actual abil- 
ity — to understand natural and moral truth shall be fully 
met, then science may be said to have performed her mission. 
And then we will have only to teach these things, so far 
as they may be unknown, from man to man. I do not 
mean that man must know all cosmological truth which ia 



110 =. DIUTURNITY. 

in itself capable of being known; but it is necessary that 
science should teach him so much of the entire world, and 
its entire furniture, with all its varied relationship, depend- 
ency, and adaptation, as may enable him to draw from the 
whole and from the several parts all the properties they 
possess which are capable of advancing human happiness. 
Capacity does not go beyond design. 



CHAPTER XXXY. 

CONCERNING THE PHILOSOPHIC CONGRUITY BETWEEN MAN 
AND THE WORLD. 

To say that God has made nothing in vain — that a wise 
and benevolent forecast was exercised in creation — that 
every thing has its purpose — that adaptation and coopera- 
tion run all through sublunary affairs, is, in effect, to say 
that man will not have performed his proper and intended 
business in this world until he shall, at least, be qualified 
for all the natural duties of life. And this implies that he 
must become acquainted with the world in which he lives 
in all its details, so far, at least, as to enable him to ap- 
propriate its properties to his use and advantage. 

If he is not to become thus qualified for the use of all 
this world, with all its furniture, then an inferior world to 
this would have answered his ends and requirements just 
as well. It would be unwise and inappropriate to build a 
costly edifice, with forty apartments, medical, chemical, as- 
tronomical, literary, etc., for the use of two or three peasants 
to live in a week. 

Not only, therefore, was all this world, in all its scien- 
tific departments, prepared for man's proper use, but man 
must be qualified for the use and appropriation of these 



CONCERNING MAN AND THE WORLD. Ill 

things. And, in order to know how to use them, he must, 
at least, be scientifically acquainted with them. And this 
qualification must be acquired by patient research and ex- 
amination. 

Look at the world a few hundred or a few thousand 
years ago, or look at four-fifths of it at the present day, 
and see how poorly qualified its inhabitants were, and still 
are, to use the blessings and advantages prepared for their 
use by their Creator. Even a hundred years ago — almost 
yesterday — the most wise and intelligent were entirely ig- 
norant of many great advantages in nature well known to 
us now. And as to our present attainments, relatively, it 
is in the highest degree probable, amounting to moral cer- 
tainty, that the great mines and fields of the rich furniture 
of earth are as yet undiscovered. And even in regard to 
those things with which we are supposed to be familiar, on 
a little examination there will be seen to be the greatest 
practical incongruity. 

Look at the practical difference between man, in his pres- 
ent attainments, and so simple and familar a department 
of life as agriculture. It is apparent that in the best dis- 
tricts of earth, and among the most enlightened, that every 
man is a novice in the science, not only of agriculture gen- 
erally, but in the cultivation of the simplest products. No 
half-informed man will say that he is acquainted with the 
best mode — not only in all circumstances, but in any cir- 
cumstances — of raising corn, or cabbage, or peas, or pota- 
toes. None but the ignorant and the unthinking can, for a 
moment, suppose that earth, air, water, and the different 
agents used in producing beans, wheat, or apples, have been 
used in their best possible combinations and relations in 
the produce of these articles, and according to the laws of 
vegetable reproduction. Our little experience raises the 
highest probability that the same quantum of outlay now 
used might produce ten times as much as a common good 
yield. Indeed, this much has been done, and can be done 



112 DIUTURNITY. 

again any time. "Where a good common crop of corn would 
be rated at thirty bushels to the acre, three hundred bushels 
can be easily produced. Many experiments of this kind 
have been tested. And the only reason I know of why 
this is not generally done is, that, with our present knowl- 
edge, it requires twenty years to prepare the seed and a 
little labor to prepare the ground. We know of no scien- 
tific barrier to the produce of one thousand bushels of corn 
to the acre, where thirty or forty is now grown. We can 
not keep destructive insects off the tender vines of the 
garden nor spiders from fruit-trees; nor can we prevent 
plants from mixing sexually nor mix them at pleasure, nor 
keep weevil from wheat nor hasty rot from potatoes. In 
the cultivation of the immensely numerous and valuable 
products of the tropics, almost nothing has been done ; and 
of the capacity of the torrid zones for agriculture and hor- 
ticulture, we are as ignorant now, almost, as we were five 
thousand years ago. 

And not only are we greatly ignorant of the best possi- 
ble modes of raising the commonest as well as the rarest 
articles of husbandry, but of a knowledge of all the various 
plants adapted to the several latitudes and different kinds 
of soil, etc., of the world, there is among men almost no 
classified and well-adjusted knowledge at all. It is fre- 
quently seen that the transfer of plants from one country 
to another is attended with very valuable results; but these 
discoveries have scarcely been begun. 

The simple science of vegetable reproduction has done so 
little toward educating and preparing man for the highest 
degree of usefulness in life in that field of industry, that 
there are, indeed, but a very few men who esteem scientific 
knowledge in this regard of any value at all ! In this re- 
spect the world can not be said to be civilized. So little 
progress has scientific knowledge made in this department 
of industry, that it has not as yet convinced the multitude 
that it has any real advantages to offer to mankind! 



CONCERNING MONET. 113 

And so it might be written of almost all the sciences. 
They have done but little of their natural task of estab- 
lishing the natural congruity between man and the world 
that the Creator put into his hands. Nor is this said by 
way of croaking. I rather congratulate my fellow-man that 
so much has been done in so little time. 

Nature, with man in one hand and the world in the other, 
intended a perfectly harmonious congruity. The capacity 
of the one does not outreach that of the other. Man is 
endowed with a capability of producing, out of the world 
and its natural furniture, all these valuable and advan- 
tageous results, of which the latter is in itself naturally 
productive. And yet, at almost every stage and turn of 
life, he is in doubt how or which way to move. Often, to 
avoid one difficulty he falls into another. He has few relia- 
ble landmarks. He has but scarcely entered the threshold 
of the great store-house. But he is as yet in the morning 
tWight. The sun will be up by and by. 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 

CONCERNING MONEY — ITS PHILOSOPHY AND USES. 

To suppose this to be the culminating period of the 
world, is to suppose that gold and silver are precious metals 
above all others, and that its supply in the mines is pro- 
portioned to the office they now hold in the commercial 
world. Laws, whether statutory or conventional, fixing the 
relative value of what we call money, are based upon the 
supposed scarcity of these metals. Gold, platinum, and silver, 
and sometimes copper, are the universally recognized money 
metals among modern commercial nations. Grold, as it is 
usually smelted for coin, is rated to be worth about fifteen 
10 



114 DIUTURNITY. 

times as much as silver. This is upon the supposition that 
there is fifteen times as much silver as gold in the world. 

But gold and silver are not essentially money metals any 
more than other articles. Formerly, kids, skins, and iron 
were used. Gold and silver are used merely because a large 
relative value may be put in a small compass. But it is a 
mistake to suppose that governments establish the value of 
coined metal. They only give it a mere relative value. 
The money with which Abraham purchased Machpelah was 
not probably stamped by a government, and yet it was 
"current with the merchant." 

No longer ago than the reign of Elizabeth, a law was 
passed in England in regard to college leases, which fixed the 
price, in money, of two-thirds of the amount, and required 
the other third to be paid in corn at the market value. 
But the influx of the precious metals subsequently has 
changed the law very materially. Long since, the corn, 
though originally only one-third part in value, is now more 
than double the portion to be paid in money. 

Suppose, as some recent discoveries seem to meditate as 
possible, at least, that gold is plenty — as plenty as copper 
or lead. We have but barely begun to discover any thing 
contained in the bowels of the earth. Then gold must re- 
sign its office as a commercial agent, and these gold and silver 
money days will be looked back upon, from the great im- 
provements of the future, as we now look back upon the 
times when "money" first began to be "current with the 
merchant." 



THE INTERCOMMUNICATION OF IDEAS. 115 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

CONCERNING THE INTERCOMMUNICATION OF IDEAS GENER- 
ALLY, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH IT IS DONE. 

Very much of the business of life consists in the com- 
munication of our thoughts from one to another. This is a 
source of human happiness to a most immeasurable extent, 
and a large amount of our happiness is measured by the 
facility with which this is done. A great man, who had a 
remarkably good use of language, was asked how he had 
acquired it so. perfectly. He replied that in his young days 
he saw that in the course of life he had to talk more than 
to do almost any other one thing, and that this was a neces- 
sary employment for every day ; and he therefore concluded 
that to learn this art well would be more useful to him than 
almost any other. The man who can talk well and write 
well has a most immeasurable advantage over others. 

Whether language was originally the gift of Grod or the 
invention of man is a question for others. We here deal 
with it simply as a part of G-od's providence. It is in- 
tended, therefore, for us to make use of it to the full ex- 
tent of its capabilities. 

It is certain that language is at present a very imperfect 
vehicle for the conveyance of thought. I do not know to 
what this is attributable. It might be to a designed natu- 
ral incompleteness in language itself, to prevent its perver- 
sion to our disadvantage; it might be to a natural incon- 
gruity between mind and its transmissibility, or it may be 
cnly to our lack of acquaintance with language as it stands 
connected with acoustics and utterance. Certain it is, the 
lack, or defect, or imperfection exists. 



116 DIUTURNITY. 

That there should be more than one language among man- 
kind is an obvious disadvantage. Plurality and confusion 
of tongues was inflicted upon us a few years ago at Babel, 
as a punishment for our presumptuous sins, and as a re- 
straint to check us in our rebellion. It is likely we are 
beginning to work back to the wholesome practice of one 
language and one speech; though it is certain Grod will 
not permit this until it would be a real advantage to man- 
kind. 

Language is susceptible of almost indefinite improvements, 
and its improvement will benefit mankind more than that 
of almost any other endowment. It has greatly improved 
and is now improving rapidly. 

Ideas are fast increasing in number, as new facts and 
truths present themselves to the mind; and every new idea 
needs a new word, or the change or extension of sense of 
an existing word, in order that it may be communicated. 
Complexional shades of meaning may be communicated by 
actions presented to the eye of the listener; and then, by 
writing or picturing thoughts to the eye, ideas may be com- 
municated with considerable rapidity, but not with great 
accuracy, as to fine shades of meaning. Let any one attempt 
to describe any thing accurately, and he will find he has no 
means of making tfpon his friend, the precise impression he 
himself experiences. 

Our thoughts are generally communicated to each other 
by means of talking and writing — the former being addressed 
to the ear, and the latter to the eye. Motions of the limbs 
and body are also used in the former mode, for the purpose 
of giving shade and force to particular words. In these 
two ways almost all our thoughts are transferred from one 
to another. In the former mode the corresponding parties 
must be placed within hearing distance of each other; and 
in the latter the writing — made with pen or type, and in 
some sort of characters or printing — must be conveyed by 
third parties from one correspondent to the other party. 



THE INTERCOMMUNICATION OF IDEAS. 117 

Tlie receiving party may be one man, or, by means of books 
or newspapers, ten thousand. 

But are there no other — no more facilitating and rapid 
modes of transmitting our thoughts from man to man? But 
a very few years ago, even within the recollection of many, 
science would have answered this question decidedly in the 
negative. We were told that the laws of nature absolutely- 
required the parties to be within seeing or hearing distance, 
or that the words or pictures, carved or written, be con- 
veyed by physical process from place to place. But science 
has already demonstrated that this is a most egregious mis- 
take. There never was any such necessity. 

It now stretches a small wire a thousand miles, and the 
communicating correspondent at the one end writes his 
thoughts instantaneously at the other end, to be read there. 
But is the wire necessary ? This necessity has not only not 
been demonstrated, for we have not yet learned the office 
which the wire performs, but in casting about irregularly, it 
has been demonstrated that it is not necessary. Regular 
modes of telegraphing accurately without a wire have not 
been invented; but there is every reason to believe that 
the means and modes of communicating ideas from man to 
man are extensive and facile, far beyond any thing now 
reduced to practical science. These modes are now, so far 
as we see them, erratic, excentric, and apparently fantastic 
and lawless. But science is under obligations to develop 
these laws and place the reins in our hands. But we will 
look at the general question from a few other points of ob- 
servation. 



118 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

CONCERNING THE OFFICE AND END OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 

The language of man is his distinguishing glory. Speech 
is a most grand and sublime endowment. Man alone pos- 
sesses it. The plan and arrangement of the organs of ar- 
ticulation show a most wonderful display of Divine skill. 
Few people are aware of the wonderful effects of human 
speech, when well directed by persons who are considered 
gifted in the art of vocal utterance. The contrast between 
this and ordinary vocal utterance is great indeed. 

The world has produced some few persons in the pulpit, 
on the forum, and the stage whose power of speech so far 
transcended the ability of men in general, that it seems 
almost a different thing altogether. Now, it is not probable 
that every man living or every youth could attain to such 
powers of eloquence as some possess; but it is certain, 
morally certain, that, in the course of a line of generations, 
the art of speaking might be so improved that the very 
best performers now would be but common-place and only 
rank with the multitude, if, indeed, they would not be in 
an inferior position. 

Look at the manner in which reading is generally per- 
formed now, even among the few educated persons. The 
difference between good reading and that which passes cur- 
rent among the better classes of educated persons is very 
great indeed. In the latter case, it is not too much to say 
that, generally, almost every rule of natural rhetoric is vio- 
lated in almost every sentence. From a personal acquaint- 
ance with several thousand ministers, and I know not how 



CONCERNING HUMAN LANGUAGE. 119 

many lawyers, college presidents, and teachers, I have not 
known one whose reading I should consider good. 

The common standard of popular acceptability in reading 
is away down at the point of incoherent mumbling and life- 
less muttering, such as is generally heard at such places as 
the pulpit and the bar. The reading which has life and 
thrill and power in it; that which drives naming thoughts 
and charming, animated zeal through every chamber of the 
soul, and causes the hearer to feel the feelings of the 
speaker, is generally looked upon as the very rare and un- 
common gift of a few; whereas it ought to be regarded as 
the common standard of good reading. 

Most persons seem to think that if the words of the 
author be correctly pronounced in their proper order, mind- 
ing the "stops," and observing a few rules laid down in the 
"rhetoric," that he gives the full idea of the author; whereas 
it is likely we never, in reading, get the full idea of the 
author. We are not yet well skilled in the use of language. 
"We get the author's grosser and most primary thoughts, 
perhaps, but generally most of the full appreciation of the 
author's subject is lost before it reaches us through the 
books. 

There is no doubt that such powers of utterance as those 
put forth by the celebrated singer Jenny Lind, a few years 
ago, and by a few star stage -players, is within the reach, or 
ought to be within the reach, of every one, where there is 
no malformation of the vocal organs. But in order to this, 
one important thing is necessary, that public taste and popu- 
lar opinion and expectation imperatively demand it. The 
mouth can be educated to the performance of almost any 
degree of vocal mechanism imaginable. 

It is a burning shame that the stage has the name of 
being ahead of the pulpit in the demonstrations of vocal 
utterance. John Randolph was right when, on returning 
from a lecture in Washington, in answer to an inquiry what 



120 DIUTURNITT. 

lie thought of it, he replied, "Think! Do you suppose I 
would be likely to think about the performance of a man 
who calls horizon, Ao?4zon?" And my reverend and pious 
friend was right when, on leaving the church, in reply to a 
similar question, he says, " Sermon ! I have heard no ser- 
mon; have you heard any?" 

1 regret most sorely I did not know and appreciate the 
right use of language forty or fifty years ago. But, alas! 
there was none to tell me. I did not know but language 
was used according to its natural capabilities. And to-day I 
would give thousands, if I had it, if it would purchase for 
me the ability to read one chapter in the Bible correctly ; 
but that I have no hope of ever doing. My mouth is old 
and stiff, and long since ruined by this miserable reading, 
such as schools and colleges teach, and men considered edu- 
cated practice. 

And then if you leave the ranks of educated men and go 
among the more uninformed, which class comprises nine- 
tenths of the people in the best parts of the world, you find 
their use of language barely a remove from that in savage life. 
They make no more effort to use and educate the organs of 
articulation to advantage than the lower animals. It is not 
too much to say that common conversation, as compared 
with the natural capabilities of speech, is a stammering, 
drawling, mumbling twang, or jabbering sputter of mispro- 
nunciation, capable of conveying a few gross ideas, but 
utterly incapable of communicating a thousand shades of 
thought, of feeling, of emotion, and of description. Who 
has not felt the great inconvenience of being unable to 
speak what he knows, feels, or perceives ? And so men talk 
very composedly of the "feebleness of human language." 
This feebleness is not probably in the language, but in our 
proficiency in the use of it. 

The idea that a good use of language is a rare gift be- 
stowed upon a very few, and that the mass of mankind are 
not to rise, in this respect, above the mumbling of a few 



CONCERNING HUMAN LANGUAGE. 121 

un grammatical words and barbarisms, in a dull, meaningless 
way, is certainly well befitting the lower walks of ignorance, 
but should not be tolerated by men of thought and intelli- 
gence. Language was given to man for the highest, holiest, 
and noblest of purposes. 

Very few men seem to have carefully considered the im- 
mense practical advantage which would accrue to mankind 
from such an improvement in the use of it as we have here 
hinted at, and as few seem to be aware of the rapid man- 
ner in which language is improving at this very day. 

We sometimes speak of a standard dictionary ; we might 
almost as well speak of a standard almanac. In a living 
language a dictionary can remain standard, or correct, but a 
very short time. The reason of this is, that ideas are con- 
stantly increasing in the mind, especially where science and 
general information are advancing. Ideas are accumulating 
in number rapidly almost every day ; and every new idea 
must inevitably have, in order that it may be used in speech, 
a new word, or a new meaning to an old one; so that words 
are increasing in number all the while. A good dictionary 
to-day, is only good for to-day. Practically it can scarcely 
be in a high degree useful beyond twenty or twenty-five 
years. In fifty years the best English dictionary will not 
only give a wrong and obsolete meaning to many words, but, 
what is still more important, it will fail to contain at all 
many important words in actual use. 

This increase of words describes not so much our gross 
or general ideas, as their subdivisions and many shades of 
thought and appreciation. Thus, while one word will con- 
vey a general idea, and twenty others will suffice to tell all 
we know about it now, as our knowledge of it extends into 
further and further modifications, and new truths in it and 
phases of it arise, it will give profitable employment to a 
hundred or to many words. 

It is apparent, then, that as knowledge increases, the in- 
crease of words must be very great. Ideas must be inter- 
11 



122 DIUTURNITY. 

changed; and the time must roll up, in the round of years, 
when men will have become tolerably well acquainted with 
the things and improvements of the world. And ideas must 
increase far less rapidly, and then but very little; and then, 
and not until this state of things shall measurably transpire, 
can it be said that language will have conferred its proper 
and designed benefits upon mankind. 

Language was conferred upon mankind for their good. 
And by this I do not mean the few words constituting the 
language in the days of Adam; I mean language in its 
natural organic capabilities, the extent to which it may be 
made useful. Language is a creation. In the earliest times 
they knew and were able to use only its alphabet. We are 
using it to better advantage; but it will require a distant 
future to witness its more full development. 

Language was created and intended for the transmission 
of our thoughts by certain articulate sounds, or for the 
communication of our ideas as another expresses it; and 
another, for the expression of our ideas. These descriptions 
all mean the same thing. But do we or can we communi- 
cate our ideas, or express our thoughts, by the use of lan- 
guage? Upon a little reflection, every one will in a moment 
see that we can not. He can communicate some of them, 
but, on most subjects, the far greater number remain with 
him, and he can not force them away by means of language. 
Let a man undertake to describe any thing to his friend — 
a country, a horse, or a cloud. Let him try to describe 
his fears, hopes, anxieties, emotions. Let a man try to com- 
municate to his friend his opinions of another man, or of 
morals, or, indeed, of any thing else, and he will find that 
he can not do it. All these ideas are distinctly formed in 
his mind. His knowledge and appreciation of them is exact. 
But he can not tell his friend the tithe of what he knows 
himself. He can communicate some of the grosser and 
more primary features of the principal ideas, and language 
will aid him no more. You can say of a man that he was 



CONCERNING HUMAN LANGUAGE. 123 

tall and of such and such look ; but your description, when 
finished, will apply just as well to a thousand others, whereas, 
in your thoughts, it will apply to that one man only. On 
most subjects, only the more gross outlines of the idea are 
transmitted. 

A thief in a city entered the chamber of an invalid un- 
able to rise, picked up what he wanted, and went his way. 
His protection consisted, in his view, without understanding 
it exactly, in the inability of the invalid to 'convey his ideas 
of his person to the policeman. But it so happened that 
the invalid was expert in the art of drawing likenesses ; and 
by the time the policeman was there, he had his features 
and person clearly sketched. Now he -was able to tell the 
officer who it was that robbed him, and the officer had only 
to go into the street and tap him on the shoulder as soon 
as he met with him, just as he would one he had long 
known. In this case an art was employed to do the natu- 
ral duty of language, and what language will be able to do 
in a vastly improved state. 

What we can not do with language, after making the 
effort, we generally attribute to "feebleness of language." 
But what do we mean precisely by the feebleness of lan- 
guage? Is language naturally and constitutionally unable 
to convey distinctly formed ideas from one to another? 
Language, like all other gifts, has limits firmly set, but 
within those limits has it innate, organic inability? If so, 
then it was not well designed to perform its intended 
offices. 

The child can not tell you, except in very gross and 
rough outline, what happened out in the yard. But his 
inability to use language should not be attributed to a de- 
fect in the language itself. 



124 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

CONCERNING ACOUSTICS — ITS IMMENSE NATURAL IMPORT- 
ANCE, AND OUR GREAT LACK OP KNOWLEDGE RESPECT- 
ING IT. 

Vert intimately connected with the art of talking and 
singing is the science of acoustics. It treats of sounds; of 
their formation, their transmission through the air, and their 
communication with the ear, etc. 

In public addresses we labor under great disadvantage for 
lack of knowledge with regard to these laws. Ordinarily 
we have no means by which one man can be distinctly heard 
by over one or two thousand persons. Some few speaking 
halls are said to seat three thousand or four thousand per- 
sons; but, for the most part, a speaker is not heard well 
by over a few hundred. 

Numerous experiments have been made to remedy this 
difficulty, but, for lack of better knowledge of the laws of 
acoustics, they have frequently, if not generally, proved 
rather a disadvantage. 

It is naturally practicable for one man to address and be 
well heard by hundreds of thousands. The voice, the air, 
and the ear possess the capability. But ordinarily, in pub- 
lic discourses, but a small fraction of the sound that is made 
is used. I once suggested to a doctor of divinity an im- 
provement in a pulpit. But he replied that it made no dif- 
ference; one place to stand was as good as another! 

Air, in its natural, dry, and uncompressed state, is by no 
means a good conductor of sound. Then, as it is the in- 
strument given us for this general purpose, it would seem 
that, as compared with some other things, it was but poorly 



CONCERNING ACOUSTICS. 125 

calculated for that purpose, or we have not learned how to 
use it. The latter is the necessary conclusion. 

Many experiments have been made in the transmission of 
sound by whispering galleries, sounding-boards, echo upon 
rough and smooth surfaces, etc., which go to show that the 
transmissibility of sound under some circumstances is amaz- 
ing as compared with other circumstances. But while a 
very few — one or two in a million — have been, at least, 
attempting some improvement here, the great mass of the 
people have taken not a single step in that direction. 

And so it is quite common to see men of talent and learn- 
ing, almost every-where, tamely submitting to the greatest 
disadvantages in public declamation, as if the simplest im- 
provement was not practicable. And, indeed, it is true to- 
day, that almost all the churches in the land are arranged 
in open violation of such plain and simple rules of acous- 
tics as we, some of us, are acquainted with. The laws of 
sound are almost wholly disregarded; indeed, architects, 
ministers, and congregations seem not to know that there 
are any such laws. And generally, or indeed uniformly, 
the best churches — the great and wealthy Trinity Church, 
in New York, being an example — violate these laws most 
rudely. 

And so, as yet, we have failed almost entirely to appro- 
priate to our use one of the very important good things 
which God has provided for our advantage. It is almost 
an unused, uncultivated waste. 



126 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER XL. 

CONCERNING WRITING — IS IT PROBABLE THAT THE MOST 
PROPER MODE OF WRITING IS DISCOVERED? 

One of the most useful and important things in civilized 
life is the art of writing. There has been, first and last, a 
good deal of speculation as to the art. Some contend - it 
was first known when God wrote the Ten Commandments; 
but there is no good evidence that it was not in use long 
before. It is next to certain that it has been in use very 
nearly as long as language has. But we are concerned 
rather with its progress than its origin. If we compare its 
present state of advance with the past, we shall note very 
great improvement ; but if with its ultimate capabilities, we 
must work more slowly and reason more carefully. 

In olden time, for many centuries, writing improved very 
slowly; and, as compared with our experience, was per- 
formed very inconveniently. They wrote, with various kinds 
of instruments, upon bark, upon smooth, flat stones, boards, 
skins, and the like. After a long time, ink and then pa- 
per were invented, and printing, which is but a mode of 
copying — came into vogue. And now we write very fast 
and print with great speed, comparatively. And because 
of this simple fact, but with no reasons that can be sug- 
gested, we imagine that the art has arrived at the acme of 
its perfection. But this conclusion lies in no sound phi- 
losophy. It is the mere blind result of ignorance and in- 
attention. 

But this present mode of writing — slowly, slowly, word 
after word — is defective and immature, from the considera- 
tion that there is a great disparity in the time necessary in 



CONCERNING WRITING. 127 

the formation of words in the mind and that in copying 
them with the pen. A speaker will speak Words about 
as fast generally as a hearer will receive them; but in 
writing, the hand is constantly lagging away behind the 
mind. And this inconvenience results not only from the 
mere lack of speed, but the hand receiving the words so 
slowly, the mind is constantly frustrated and incommoded 
by the detention. The best part of a thought is often lost, 
or the whole of it, because the mind could not work well, 
in full force, so slowly. This constant curb upon the mind 
is a great disadvantage to its performances. The mind sel- 
dom if ever works well unless it can sail off glibly and 
without interruption. 

Practice does not remedy this difficulty in the least; it 
only accustoms us to it. But God never intended that one 
art or endowment bestowed by him should work injury 
upon another; nor that two endowments intended to work 
conjointly should be invested with widely different powers 
of motion. 

And is there no way by which this difficulty may be reme- 
died? It is strange to say that we all know very well there 
is. Improvements have been introduced lately which, if 
there were no others within reach, would, and no doubt 
soon will, go far to facilitate the speed of writing. No par- 
ticular number or kind of marks made on paper are neces- 
sary in writing. Surely there can be no absolute need for 
writing every word out in full. 

The art of condensing and saving in the manual labor of 
writing was introduced, and practiced to considerable ex- 
tent, among the Greeks and Romans about two thousand 
years ago; and thirty years ago more than a hundred trea- 
tises had been published on the subject in the English lan- 
guage. And since that time the practice of writing quick-* 
hand has been taught and extended considerably. In the 
year 1767, the first thoroughly scientific treatise on the 
subject was published by Byrone, an English stenographer; 



128 DIUTURNITT. 

and since which time considerable improvement has been 
made in that style of writing. At the present time it is at- 
tracting considerable attention both in Europe and America. 
To what degree of perfection it may be carried, how far it 
may be modified, improved, and simplified to thought, are 
questions to be answered in the future. 

We know, however, that many persons can write about 
as fast as a man will talk, and that lengthy discourses are 
frequently copied as they are delivered, verbatim. The sys- 
tem, too, has far more of system in it than our common 
mode of word-making. It begins with an alphabet strictly 
and accurately philosophical, which the common mode of 
spelling certainly does not. The English alphabet is well 
known to be most wretchedly defective. Still, phonography, 
as quick-hand is now called, has its difficulties and obstacles 
which must be overcome. 

Telegraphing is another mode of quick writing which is 
likely to work out great improvements and advantages. 

Erom these, and many other considerations that might be 
named, it seems nearly certain that the great and useful art 
of WRITING, as a means of addressing our thoughts to the 
eye, is yet in a greatly unimproved and infantile condition, 
especially when we compare it with its. natural companion, 
the formation of distinct thoughts in the mind. It is to 
have a great and wonderful future in the coming years of 
this world's current history. 



CONCERNING LONGEVITY. 129 



CHAPTER XLI. 

CONCERNING LONGEVITY, ANCIENT AND MODERN — WHICH 
IS THE RULE AND WHICH THE EXCEPTION? 

People before the flood, and for some time afterward, 
lived sometimes eight or nine hundred years, and even more. 
Probably from seven to about nine hundred years might be 
regarded the general rule. About the time of the deluge, 
the lives of men began to shorten until the time of Abra- 
ham, a period of great uncertainty as to its length— a little 
over four hundred years according to Archbishop Usher, 
and one thousand years according to the basis of calcula- 
tion used by Dr. Hales. Many other chronologers diifer 
widely. That patriarch died at one hundred and seventy- 
five, which was then regarded "a good old age." From 
about the time of the death of Abraham, one hundred or 
one hundred and fifty years seem to have been considered 
about as long as old men generally lived; and since some 
ages afterward, three-score and ten years has been consid- 
ered a fair period for one old man's life. 

Many speculations have been made upon the longevity of 
the ancients. The inquiry seems to be generally why G-od 
so greatly lengthened out the lives of the people of the first 
ages. Some assign this cause, and some that. Josephus 
gives four. The first three seem rather whimsical, but the 
last is in these words: "Because their food was then fitter 
for the prolongation of life, they might well live so great a 
number of years." 

In these inquiries it is assumed, on what ground I know 
not, that for some reasons God granted special favors of 
long life to the ancients beyond the normal or natural 



130 DIUTURNITY. 

period of man's life. But how do they ascertain which is 
the rule and which is the exception? Why not assume 
that nine hundred years is the rule, the natural longevity, 
and that in these later ages life has become shortened? 

In the absence of revealed information, we are left to such 
analogical reasoning as we may deduce. And, first, it would 
seem strange, and would seem to require some little proof, 
that the world should begin with a most important and ex- 
traordinay exception to a normal rule. Secondly, if that 
proves any thing, it is by no means certain that the long- 
life period is any shorter in the world's history, so far, than 
the short- life period. And, thirdly, is there any thing to 
disprove the supposition that the shortening of man's life in 
these later ages is the natural result of adventitious causes — 
the violations of the laws of health chiefly? This is cer- 
tainly natural at least. This thing would be likely to regu- 
late itself in the course of years, and bring things right 
again. 

A part of man's constitution endowed him with something, 
as in all similar cases, I know not what, which caused his 
life to be about so long at old age. Other animals live, some 
one year, some ten, and some twenty years. And one would 
presume that, at the first, man's life would conform to its 
constitution. Things were then normal, simple, natural. 

There are lavjs of life. These laws, with their effects, 
begin and end not by any means with one individual person 
of our nice. The results of the violation or the observance 
of these laws enter the genealogical current and pass on 
down, receiving increase from a thousand confluent inlets. 
And after ten or twenty generations, a child may be said 
to be healthy — that is, as healthy as others; but there is 
a virus in him a thousand years old, which will most as- 
suredly cut down his life to about that of his parents and 
others around him, though that be one-fourth or one-tenth 
the primary constitutional measure. 

The two opposing principles of waste and preservation are 



CONCERNING LONGEVITY. 131 

constantly at work in man. The one sucks in poison from 
a thousand rivulets of irregularity, while the other is con- 
stantly working to throw it off by means of the physiological 
machinery. But for this latter provision, assisted by some 
little medical and surgical aid, the race would, in a hun- 
dred years to come — not to speak of any considerable .pe- 
riod — become imbecile and dwarfish, and in a short time 
would become extinct. 

Let any reflecting man stand still a little, and look out 
upon the world and see how people live, and he will won- 
der that they do not terminate human life in a few genera- 
tions. 

Look at savage life. See their many exposures every day. 
Great lack and irregularity in food, clothing, labor, rest; no 
medicine, no science, no dwellings, with unrestrained pas- 
sions and utter recklessness of life or health. And yet it 
is the burning shame of civilization that they have about as 
good health as civilized people, and oftentimes much better. 
Nay, much, more : it is true that where civilization is the 
highest, according to the common estimate, health and lon- 
gevity are the lowest. The explanation is, that while sav- 
ages injure their health immensely, civilized people, in other 
and different ways, injure theirs still more! 

Why do we not find as many persons between the ages 
of seventy and one hundred as between ten and forty? Is 
it even the general rule that men live till the machinery of 
life wears out? Indeed, it hardly ever wears out. Have 
we any well-settled physiological test that this has been the 
case in a single instance in the last three thousand years? 
The machine is always broken by some accident or misman- 
agement. 

May be, therefore, in the first generations, before these 
irregularities had had time to work out their legitimate re- 
sults, we find man in his normal and natural condition in 
this respect. And the shortening of life which we see aft- 
erward is, may be, a departure from normal rule, and not a 



132 DITJTURNITY. 

finding of it for the first time. Is the shortening the re- 
suit of an arbitrary decree of the Almighty, or of human 
conduct? May be it is both. 

The Edinburgh Encyclopedia gathers up a few statistics in 
the last century, of forty-three persons who lived from one 
hundred to one hundred and ten years; fifteen from one hun- 
dred and twenty to one hundred and thirty; ten from one 
hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty; thirteen from 
one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty; six from one 
hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty; one, one hun- 
dred and sixty-nine; one, one hundred and eighty, and one, 
one hundred and eighty-five. And I notice that Pliny, near 
the close of the first century, gives account, in a very small 
district in Italy, between the Po and the Appenines, of one 
hundred and twenty- four persons between the a»ges of one 
hundred and one hundred and forty, and in another little 
neighborhood of thirty-two between one hundred and one 
hundred and fifty. These are a few instances of the crop- 
ping out of fine, partially healthful veins in the descend- 
ing genealogical current, which may yet be restored to a 
state of natural soundness. But, in order to this, restora- 
tion, in the natural process of things, a good many years 
will yet be necessary. This short-lived period may turn 
out to be but a short parenthesis, though of several thou- 
sand years' duration. 

Almost all the deaths that occur are evidently prema- 
ture. • Very few live to what is generally considered old 
age. A few die from accidental causes, but nine-tenths of 
the people die from what we call disease, in the midst of 
the vigor of life. And what is disease but the result of vio- 
lations of the laws of health? Ah, it may be replied, dis- 
ease is the result of sin. That may be very true, but that 
is no reason why it may not be the result of violations of 
the laws of health. Sin produces conduct which violates the 
proper rules of living, which sets agoing a stream of physio- 
logical virus which crops out here and there in disease and 



CONCERNING LONGEVITY. 133 

death. This cropping-out is assisted, more or less, and 
oftentimes very greatly, by the conduct of the individual 
person. 

Now, suppose sin to be so far eradicated from mankind 
that the laws of health are well observed, and that this con- 
tinues for one hundred generations only. Who will not say 
that death will not appear in the world a very different 
thing from what it now is? There would be no deaths from 
violence, except from unavoidable accidents, and very few, 
if any, from what is now called disease. Indeed, disease 
must after awhile disappear. Man would pass as quietly 
into eternity as a lamp goes out for lack of oil. He would 
pass away as quietly as a gentle sleep. His sensibilities 
have grown dull imperceptibly. The vital energy becomes 
more and more sluggish; the body becomes less and less 
vital, and is really almost dead; the organs scarcely per- 
form their functions ; the mind dozes gently, and the man 
is relieved and invigorated by the departure of the body 
in its last lingering steps, and he is calmly and sweetly 
dead. 

Nothing short of this is natural death. And do not these 
considerations indicate a high probability that men will 
live one thousand years? I claim to know no more than 
others who will reason soberly by the lights of Scripture 
and Nature. Will not a sinless state of the world produce 
these results in a hundred or a few hundred generations? 

And I must refuse to allow that a thousand or five hun- 
dred thousand generations can not be, or will not be, meas- 
ured out to our race merely because we have not seen it 
done. I must have other and better reasons. 



134 DIUTURNITT. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

CONCERNING WILD ANIMALS — THEIR WILDNESS IS MERELY 
TEMPORARY AND INCIDENTAL. 

Wild animals are an innovation upon the harmony of 
nature, and an anomaly in the world. They belong natu- 
rally to an irregular and beginning state of the world. The 
world was not made for dumb animals; but both they and 
the world were made for man's special use. The wildness 
of wild animals is one of the incidents or accidents of life, 
not one of its rules ; and it will regulate itself as the world 
becomes inhabited and matures into its proper usefulness. 

Let us see: "And God blessed them, and God said unto 
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the' earth, 
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have 
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face 
of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit 
of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for. meat. And 
to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, 
and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and 
it was so." 

As previously explained, the world was made for man, 
for his especial use and behoof, with all its appurtenances 
of animals, vegetables, minerals, etc. ; and all these things 
were formally and solemnly conveyed, and set over to him 
in a solemn deed of gift and delivery; and some of them 
were actually and personally delivered into his hand. 

Let us read again : " And out of the ground the Lord 



/ 

CONCERNING WILD ANIMALS. 135 

God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the 
air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call 
them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, 
that was the name thereof." 

Thus they were brought to Adam and delivered into his 
hand. There was no difference between wild and tame; 
they were all domestic. 

And again, at the time of the flood, we see no allusion 
made to wildness in animals. Noah was to bring, and did 
bring, "two of every sort" into the ark with him, and in 
like manner discharged tham. "Of clean beasts, and of 
beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing 
that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two 
unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God 
commanded Noah." And the reason for this was, " that 
they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and 
multiply upon the earth." 

Doctor Clarke, in commenting on the fiftieth verse of the 
seventh chapter, says : " It was physically impossible for 
Noah to have collected such a vast number of tame and 
ferocious animals ; nor could they have been retained in 
their wards by mere natural means." And so he makes the 
whole a miraculous interposition. That is. at least, a very 
convenient mode of settling biblical questions. But I see 
nothing, either in reason or revelation, which gives color to 
such a conclusion. Doctor Clarke does not know, nor does 
any one else, whether there were any "wild" or "ferocious" 
animals at the time of the flood; but it is both unnatural 
and unscriptural to suppose they were created wild. Nor 
can I see the Doctor's "physical impossibility." Surely, 
Noah did not have a pair each of every variety as we now see 
them extended. There was necessity only for two each of 
every species. Natural history and physiology give sufficient 
room for the wide extension into the varieties which we see 
in modern ages. 

Nothing is more easily accounted for than wildness and 



136 DIUTURNITY. 

ferocity in wild animals. Turn any animal into the forest, 
and neglect to use him according to the original grant, and 
he will soon become wild and very likely ferocious, The 
most sluggish hogs will become perfectly wild in two years, 
and in four or five years they will be a very different animal 
in many respects. In this short time they will be more fleet 
and more ferocious than bears, and as much so as wolves or 
panthers. I make this statement from observation. Do- 
mestic use on the one hand, and total neglect on the other, 
will very materially change the appearance, form, color, and 
character of any animals — some more than others. It is 
not at all probable that four thousand years ago there were 
any animals which bore a very striking resemblance to their 
progeny now. 

Wildness in animals, like all other incidental evils, is, no 
doubt, the product of sin in man; but still these changes 
come about naturally and not miraculously. Bad men con- 
duct themselves badly as well toward beasts as toward every 
thing else; and bad conduct toward beasts, coupled with 
neglect, estrangement, etc., would soon produce the wildness 
we see. 

But, give the simple machinery of the Gospel scope and 
time to work its work, and these irregularities will be rec- 
tified. " The wolf also shall lie down with the lamb, and the 
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the 
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall 
lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their 
young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat 
straw like an ox. And the sucking child shall play on the 
hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on 
the cockatrice's den." "The wolf and the lamb shall feed 
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and 
dust shall be the serpent's meat." 

These Scriptures, I presume, mean just what they say. 
But one says, "That will be in the millennium." Quite 
likely. We will see a little about "millennium" after awhile. 



CONCERNING WILD ANIMALS. 137 

But still, these times of peace and concord, even among the 
animals, is to come about in the straightforward history of 
the world as we now inhabit it, by laws and causes now in 
being, without any supernatural interposition or the interven- 
tion of other laws. They look forward to a period of mere 
simple maturity and ripeness in our affairs. 

We first hear of wild animals, as well as I remember, in 
the old age of Jacob, which, according to some chronologies, 
was probably about seven hundred, or about fourteen hun- 
dred years after the flood. But these "evil beasts" may 
have gone wild in a short time previously. Beyond all 
question, all the wildness now known in animals might occur 
in a few hundred years. The hunting of Nimrod, in all 
likelihood, had no reference to beasts at all. He was a 
king, and a bold, bad man, and his hunting is supposed to 
refer to incursions and conquests among the nations. 

The hunting and procuring of "venison" by Esau and 
Jacob, throws no light on the subject. Venison means — ex- 
cept recently and in this country — any kind of very good 
or delicate flesh, either of beasts or birds. 

We are not able, therefore, to find any thing, either in 
revelation or natural history, to disperse the supposition 
that the wildness of wild animals is a mere incidental thing 
which has happened. We see how easily any animals, if 
turned out and neglected, will go wild in a short time ; and 
it requires but little acquaintance with their natural history 
to see how their character, form, color, etc., will become 
changed in even the short space of a dozen or twenty or 
thirty generations. And we see how easily any wild animals 
may be tamed and domesticated. Even the very individuals 
taken from the forest may be partially domesticated; but in 
a few generations they may be made entirely docile. 

Many animals have strayed so far in their wild state from 

domestic habitudes, that it is quite likely those varieties 

will become extinct, and so not return at all to domestic 

habits. But beyond question the Scriptures look forward 

12 



138 DIUTURNITY. 

to the time when all existing animals will be domestic, tame, 
and docile. Man himself will become tame and docile first, 
and then the world will put on a kind, harmless, and peace- 
ful condition. This looks natural. It harmonizes with our 
normal notions of ultimate fitness and propriety. 

And, moreover, this must be so, or the world will die 
prematurely. Wild beasts live in the wilderness; and what 
is a wilderness but a wild, crude, uncultivated, and unused 
region, not yet appropriated by man to its intended purpose ? 
If the world was wisely and properly made — made right, to 
an intelligent end and purpose, for the use and behoof of 
man, then it would seem that there would be ultimately no 
unused loildemess remaining in it. Otherwise, the inquiry 
arises, What was it made for? The world was made the 
right size, of the proper capacity; there is not an acre too 
much nor an acre too little. 

Then there is no room for wild beasts. They can not 
roam in cities, villages, and highly cultivated grounds. A 
proper use of the world which God gave to man abrogates 
the notion of a part of it remaining in a wild, unused con- 
dition to be roamed over by savages and wild beasts. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

CONCERNING THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH, CONSIDERED IN REF- 
ERENCE TO ITS MOST NATURAL OR PROBABLE RELATION 
TO THE EARTH IN ITS PRESENT FORM. 

The researches of science and a better understanding of 
revelation has, we may say, demonstrated the Adamic crea- 
tion to be comparatively a recent thing. Primary creation 
did not take place at that period; that is, the matter of the 
earth was brought into existence by creative power perhaps 



CONCERNING THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 139 

many millions of years or ages — if there were any years or 
ages — before that time. The earth certainly was, for it waa 
without form, (its present form,) when the spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters. 

Some, to get rid of the difficulty of making the time of 
Adam the period of absolute creation, which is already 
pretty clearly .ascertained to be contrary to nature, have con- 
sidered the six days as six periods of indefinite and proba- 
bly very great length. But I do not see the necessity or 
even propriety of this construction. The first two verses 
of the chapter, and those subsequent, speak of quite differ- 
ent things. The former inform us of primary, chaotic crea- 
tion, and of the existence of the material of which the earth 
is composed, and that the spirit of Grod took cognizance of 
it and exercised jurisdiction over it. And, beginning with 
the third verse, the history informs us of a quite different 
thing; namely, the arrangement of this mass and the putting 
of it into its present form and condition. This latter pro- 
cess was accomplished in six days, as we now count days. 
And there is no intimation in Scripture as to the amount 
of duration which might have intervened between the crea- 
tion of the original material of the world and the arrange- 
ment of it at the time of the creation of Adam. On this 
subject our information must come from science exclusively. 

That there was a pre-adamite existence of the substance 
of the earth is, I think, stated in Scripture; and, although 
science has not measured the period of its existence before 
the creation of man with accuracy, it has-very satisfactorily 
demonstrated that, as compared with that since, it was abso- 
lutely immense, far, very far beyond computation or com- 
prehension. 

But the pre-adamite earth was not by any means in all 
these lengthened periods a mere lifeless, useless, motionless 
mass of chaos. On the contrary, every thing then, as now, 
was moving, progressing, working on harmoniously and 
regularly, from step to step, from one point of accomplish- 



140 DIUTURNITY. 

merit to another, age after age, cycle after cycle, looking 
forward constantly to the incoming scenes and condition we 
now see in the little brief period since the human creation. 

And if we had been there — away along in those immense 
periods — with our present endowments and standards of 
measurement of periods, we would no doubt have considered 
things in a matured or nearly matured condition. Things 
would appear to be almost standing still, or at least moving 
to little or no purpose. Or if we could have marked the 
progress and growth of successive generations of primeval 
forests, and marked the gradual and slow transformation of 
these forests into immense coal-beds, and, reasoning as many 
do now, we would at least have concluded that all this was 
so much labor lost, or so much Divine energy expended to 
no practical end. These immense formations would seem 
to have no valuable connection with the rest of the world. 
They are of no use to the fish nor to the reptiles, which 
in those periods were the sole inhabitants of earth. 

But even now, in this short space, the wisdom of most 
of these operations are at least somewhat apparent; and we 
can not doubt but the eye of Infinite Wisdom was over all. 
these precautionary movements, and every thing was shaped 
to a valuable end. And wonderfully immense, and to our 
feeble comprehension almost inconceivable in duration, as 
were those preparatory measures, they were merely prepara- 
tory. They were nothing more nor less than necessary 
preparations to fit up a world for the use and occupancy 
of this race of men. 

If, for the space of inconceivable and incalculable ages, 
there was a period of the earth's history when it was un- 
tenanted by either animal or vegetable, but presented a mass 
of fire and water — dissolving, molding, conforming, fusing, 
smelting — it was that rocks, and earths, and minerals, and 
salts, and other valuable articles, might be manufactured in 
the great laboratory of nature for the future use of an in- 
telligent race. 



CONCERNING THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 141 

And if, during other series of measureless periodicity, a 
very low class of vegetables began to appear, like marine 
forests — a soft, weedy, woody growth, of immense luxuriance, 
and age after age it fell back undecayed and without decom- 
position, forming immense beds and filling the bowels of 
hills and mountains, and passing even under the sea in 
places — it was that sufficient quantities of coal might be 
thus prepared and laid away, at the only period when it 
could be made for the various indispensable uses in the 
more advanced ages of the world. 

And now mark the movements of the Almighty mind and 
of the Almighty hand in these incomparably lengthened and 
wise, and seemingly laborious, preparations for the accommo- 
dation of a people who, in due time, should come in to oc- 
cupy the richly provided and immensely munificent theater! 
See the great and wonderful preparations ! There is nothing 
lacking, nor yet lacking in abundance. Mark the unmeas- 
ured store-houses of material; a place for every thing, and 
every thing in its place. And then see the wonderfully 
immense foundries, furnaces, laboratories, and machinery of 
a thousand kinds, which have been thus in ceasless opera- 
tion age after age, and period after period of unmeasured 
duration, and all looking away to the Adamic creation which 
should eclipse all before in grandeur, when a race of intelli- 
gent beings should come up through the creating hand of 
God to occupy, possess, use, and enjoy them all. 

The intelligent mind is burdened, over-burden'ed, under 
the mighty conception, as the thought catches a faint out- 
line of these immense preparatory labors. All nature seems 
to be laid under contribution; every thing works unceas- 
ingly, with no rest neither day nor night. In truth there 
is neither day nor night to mark a resting period. All is 
progress. 

But in all this there is no creating. All this was done 
away back in the dim distance, in the trackless regions of 
periodicity. And yet every thing all the while looks anx- 



142 DIUTURNITT. 

iously forward when the preparation shall be completed, and 
a world be prepared for the occupancy of its intended pro- 
prietor. 

And at length the preparation becomes complete. The 
water and land are separated; the different classes of rocks 
have been made at the proper periods; sand is made — iron, 
lead, copper, gold, silver, and all the metals were made; 
the gases were formed, the atmosphere was collected, the 
ground was hardened, electricity was diffused evcry-where; 
and all these were garnered away and spread around in all 
the proper places of deposit, and earth was ready for ani- 
mal life. Vegetation had been set to growing a little way 
back, at the proper time — perhaps a period as long as a 
million of years. And now the lower animals were forme-d, 
and earth was ready for her resident proprietor. And so 
God gave this planet its present relation to the solar sys- 
tem, and it became the residence cf man. And so the 
world was now, and not until now, ready for its intended 
use. It could not have been made ready sooner ; and to have 
delayed the human use of it longer would have been disad- 
vantageous. 

And now we are told that, after all this lengthy prepara- 
tion, this inconceivable immensity of outlay in getting things 
ready, and man has been here as the occupant, that he is to 
remain upon it and use it for the very little space of six or 
ten thousand years ! God was millions of years in getting 
it ready, in preparing a theater upon which an intelligent 
race might glorify his Maker — in a preparation so immensely 
extensive and varied — and then, before the tenth part of it is 
discovered, or the hundredth part of it used, the whole is 
to be abandoned, and God himself is absolutely to destroy 
it and fix up a new one, or arrange it differently! What 
a wonderful inconsistency this would be! What a violent 
innovation upon all the forms of harmony and apparent co- 
operation which nature every-where puts on ! 

No, it is not so! Man himself, with his restricted intel- 



• CONCERNING THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 143 

Iect, would adapt measures to ends better than that. An 
intelligent man would not labor incessantly fifty years to 
prepare a residence to be used an hour, when one with a 
thousandth part of the furniture, outlay, and finish would 
answer just as good a purpose. And then when you come 
further to examine this temporary human residence, so pre- 
pared, and find that but few of the apartments have been en- 
tered at all, or are indeed of any sort of use ; that its richest 
halls have scarcely been discovered; that but a very little of 
the furniture has been seen, or examined, or used, or can 
be used at all, we see greater and still greater evidences of 
folly and inconsistency in the construction. His labor, ex- 
cept a very little, was bestowed in vain ! 

And shall we establish a theory which will charge a worse 
folly than this upon Grod ? God forbid ! 

When'G-od set chaos into separating and conforming mo- 
tion, invested with the principle of gravitation, adhesion, 
etc., and geared its complex machinery for the manufacture 
of gases, fluids, solids, carbon, oils, electricity, etc., and 
carried on this great work through periods in duration too 
long to be computed by man, and in process of ages brought 
all to completion and readiness for man's use ; and when he 
then created his creature capable of associating with his 
Maker, and placed him here and gave all into his hand, and 
enjoined upon him to use it, all being evidently made ready 
for his use, it was for an end and purpose answerable to 
such preparation. The object was in harmony with the 
means. The establishment was prepared for use; no more, 
no less. The intended career and history were in harmony 
with the preparation. The end was to answer the be- 
ginning. 

Our means of comprehension may not enable us to com- 
pute years by the million; but that does not authorize us 
to pronounce that a million of years is a long time. A 
million of years is greater than the little periods we handle ; 
but if you ask a mind of higher order than ours, he will 



144 DIUTURNITY. 

tell you that six thousand years is but a mere morning 
hour. 

It is a part of the economy of G-od and of nature to per- 
fect that which is begun. Every thing passes round its 
circle and its cycle, and finds a natural accomplishment. 
Nature is a perfect harmony. It has no lack nor no re- 
dundancy. Every thing cooperates. With God nothing is 
great, nothing is small. He has but one plan, and that is 
perfect in all its parts. 



SECTION FOURTH. 



We now come to look at the world in its more strictly 
moral and religions aspects. And we remark, as a prefa- 
tory suggestion, that sin, which has so seriously affected 
the moral and religious condition of the world, is but an 
accidental or adventitious thing which has happened in the 
course of the world's being. It is a thing which ought not 
to have happened, but which did happen. It was uncalled 
for by either man or nature; but still it did occur. And 
further: it will not be in the world always. Some of its 
legal effects will still linger, but the thing will be numbered 
with the past. The theater of its desolations will be the 
theater of its eradication and cure. 

One of the effects of sin, which can never be entirely eradi- 
cated, is a tendency to sin, or a predisposition thereto. Lia- 
bility to sin was in man from the first. He could not be 
created a free moral agent without a liability to sin ; for 
this liability is the very thing we call free moral agency. 
Liability to sin is not, therefore, an effect of wrong doing, 
but a tendency to sin is. And now this moral corruption 
or tendency or leaning toward transgression must follow us 
so long as we continue to follow an ancestry who sinned. 

But whether this tendency to sin will actually result in 
willful transgression, in these or those instances, is another 
question. That this has been the case heretofore univer- 
sally is quite certain. But that this will continue to be 
the case until the race shall have run its course is con- 
trary to Scripture; and it might be added that, so far as 
we are able to judge from the teachings of nature, it is 
contrary to reason. 

13 (U5) 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

SOME PLAIN BIBLE TEACHINGS ON THE SINLESS PERIOD. 

The precise point intended to be substantiated just here 
is this: That in the regular course of the history of this 
world, a time will come when universal holiness will per- 
vade the human family; that then not a person — account- 
able for his conduct— will be found in all the earth but a 
sanctified Christian. In this period, sin will not be seen — 
it will not be committed. When this period will be ushered 
in, and how long it will continue, are other questions, which 
will be looked at after awhile. And we now look into the 
Scriptures to see the proof that a part of the proper years 
of this world will be a holy, sinless period. This is a ques- 
tion not of inference or deduction, but of plain, simple 
Scripture teaching. 

"All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto 
the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
before thee." — Ps. xxii: 27. 

"Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations 
shall serve him." — Ps. lxxii: 11. 

"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and wor- 
ship before thee, Lord; ahd shall glorify thy name." — Ps. 
Ixxxvi: 9. 

"It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain 
of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all na- 
tions shall flow unto it." — Isa. ii: 2. 

"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall re- 
buke many people: and they shall beat their swords into 
plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation 

(147) 



148 DIUTUBNITY. 

stall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more." — Isa. ii: 4. 

"And the loftiness of man shall he howed down, and the 
haughtiness of man shall be made low: and the Lord alone 
shall he exalted in that day." — Isa. ii: 17. 

" In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his 
idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to wor- 
ship, to the moles and to the bats." — Isa. ii: 20. 

" I have sworn by myself, the word is gone ont of my 
mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto 
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." — Isa. 
xlv: 23. 

"It shall come to pass, that from one new moon to an- 
other, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come 
to worship before me, saith the Lord." — Isa. lxvi: 23. 

" The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is 
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and 
obey him." — Dan. vii: 27. 

" The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." — Hob. ii: 14. 

"From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of 
the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and 
in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and 
a pure offering : for my name shall be great among the 
heathen, saith the Lord of host:;." — Mai. i: 11. 

"Thy people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit 
the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of 
my hands, that I may be glorified." — Isa. lx: 21. 

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, 
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for 
they shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest 
of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, 
and I will remember their sin no more."— Jer. xxxi : 34. 

" In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, 



BIBLE TEACHINGS ON THE SINLESS PERIOD. 149 

Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's 
house shall be like the bowls before the altar." — Zech, 
xiv: 20. 

"And all Israel shall be saved." — Rom. xi: 26. 

"The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight 
themselves in the abundance of peace." — Ps. xxxvii: 11. 

"I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors 
righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy 
land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou 
shalt call thy Walls Salvation and thy gates Praise." — Isa. 
lx: 17, 18. 

"He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong 
nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plow- 
shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall 
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more. But they shall sit every man under his 
vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them 
afraid, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." — Mic. 
iv: 3, 4. 

" They snail not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: 
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea." — Isa. xi : 9. 

" They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know 
me, from, the -least to the greatest." — Heb. viii: 11. 

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young 
lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead 
them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young 
ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw 
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole 
of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the 
cockatrice's den." — Isa. xi: 6, 7, 8. 

"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
flesh shall see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." — Isa. xl: 5. 



150 DIUTURNITY. 

" The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion 
shall eat straw like the bullock." — Isa. Ixv : 25. 

The above quotations are selected because of their brevity. 
Many more might be added. And it is submitted that they 
prove, as conclusively as the Scriptures prove any thing, a 
sinless period in the course of the history of the world. It 
may be said they refer to the millennium. That may be 
quite probable — depending, however, upon what is meant 
by " millennium." They refer to the true, proper, Scriptural 
millennium, the mature state of the world, when these irregu- 
larities shall have passed by. 

The notions of many respecting the millennial portion of 
the world's history are nothing more nor less than a loose, 
undigested system of mythology. Every thing is stripped 
of its naturalness. And instead of having the world and 
nature as God established them and set them agoing, we 
are to have a new, unreal, or ideal and merely potential 
condition of things. The world is no longer this world, 
but a dreamy state of which we have and can have no clear 
ideas. 

To support all these extravagancies, there is not, in my 
judgment, one word of utterance, either in nature or reve- 
lation, rightly read. Existing processes will continue and 
produce, naturally, a millennial condition of the world. 
Christianity will go on and accomplish its work fully. It 
will make "all righteous" after awhile. The millennium 
that is to be suddenly "ushered in" is contrary to reason. 
The beginning of the true millennial state will not be data- 
ble. It has begun already. 



ERRORS RESPECTING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 151 



CHAPTER XLY. 

CONCERNING SOME POPULAR ERRORS RESPECTING THE SIN- 
LESS PERIOD, AND OF ALL LONG PERIODS. 

We have seen that there will be a sinless period, of 
greater or less duration, in the coming history of this world. 
From all that we read in the Word of God, as well as from 
all the reasoning we are able to apply to the subject, it 
seems clear that this change will be brought about by nat- 
ural causes now in operation, and that it will come about 
gradually and not suddenly. Let religion continue to work, 
and work long enough, and this period will come in. 

The errors, as I conceive, in the popular as well as the 
theological mind, to some extent, on this subject, are, first — 
leaving out the fanciful notion of a second coming of Christ, 
"about 1866," and a millennium of one thousand years — 
that this period can not be very far distant, not probably 
over one or two hundred years, and perhaps a much shorter 
period. And, secondly, the sinless period, or millennium, 
will be suddenly ushered in by some mighty spiritual move- 
ments, in which our personal relation to Christ will be ma- 
terially changed. And, thirdly, that it will continue for a 
very brief period, and form the closing scene of this world's 
history. 

The first of these notions is based on the assumption that 
the world is now very old, and, therefore, what it does it 
must do quickly. And there is another notion: that the 
world is to be divided into three "dispensations," the ante- 
diluvian, the Abrahamic, and the Christian. But where 
these notions came from, I am unable even to conjecture. 
They certainly came from neither reason nor revelation. 



152 DIUTUBNITY. 

That a thousand, a million, or a thousand millions of 
years appears very long to us, is no reasoning at all. To 
an infant, or some other inferior mind, a year seems as long 
as a thousand or a million of years to a mind superior to 
ours. Arguments drawn from mere conceptions of this sort 
prove nothing. 

Nor have we any reason to conclude that the millennial 
or sinless period will be introduced suddenly, or by any 
particular display of Divine power or energy beyond or dif- 
ferent from the healthful marches of the Christian religion. 
The religion we now have is fully sufficient for all millennial 
purposes. Let it work in its own natural mode, and, sooner 
or later, a millennium is inevitable. To deny this without 
looking a" moment at what religion has done or is doing, is 
the same as to affirm that it is not well adapted to suit our 
condition. It is defective, or at least deficient, if it is not 
fully able to meet and counteract the tendency of sin and 
eradicate it fully. 

And as to the millennial period being a short season 
as compared with the season of sin and irregularity, this 
seems too unnatural to believe without very certain and very 
conclusive proof. We expect in a future place to raise very 
reasonable probabilities, at least, that it will be the proper 
adult 'period of the world's life. 

The notion that the millennial period is to come, in all 
its completeness, in the course of a few or a few hundred 
years, and that it will be the brief closing scene of the 
world, is based upon nothing but the acknowledged fee- 
bleness of the human intellect in comprehending or com- 
puting long periods of chronology. This, it must be ad- 
mitted, is a slender foundation for an opinion. It makes 
wisdom to rest upon ignorance. It is an attempt to draw 
conclusions, not from premises, but from the absence of 
premises. 

The machinery of the world, both natural and moral, was 
geared long since, and is moving on in the accomplishment 



ERRORS RESPECTING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 153 

and completion of its purposes; but many of these purposes 
lie out in the distant future; and this future lies out in 
duration far beyond such measurements as we are accus- 
tomed to. Worlds do not come .and go so rapidly as our 
feeble intellect would seem to suppose. 

What we call duration is a singular and unknown thing, 
after all. We indeed know but very little about it. Some 
call it a primary truth ; but perhaps it may be a mere mode 
of existence. But whatever it may be, it is its appearance 
only, not its reality, that is cognizant to our minds, Periods 
are long and short only as they seem to minds of different 
capacity. We are capable of handling and computing pe- 
riods of only a few thousand years, and our practical 
thoughts stretch only to a hundred years or less. But with 
a superior mind, the same mental effort will grasp periods 
of millions or hundreds of millions of years. 

Time may be a reality; but if our faculties can determine 
what it is, we have certainly, as yet, not discovered how to 
reach such determination. We know enough of its appear- 
ance for all our practical purposes. More than once in the 
Scriptures the days of men are said to be a shadow. This, 
it may be presumed, can not be literally true; and how it 
can be figuratively true it may not be easy to conjecture. 
The probability is, that no inspired man had a clear idea 
on the subject; and if he had, he could not communicate 
his idea to another, because of the entire lack of words 
with which to convey it. 

Still, days and years, whether appearances or realities, 
stand intimately connected with our lives, if not with our 
being. The world seems, at least, to grow old, though I 
know of no necessity that it should do so. No man can 
demonstrate that any given existence grows old except by 
a rule which would place all existences under the same law. 
And we know that this law is not universal, for neither 
God nor angels, nor the spirits of just men made perfect, 
grow old. 



154 DIUTURNITY. 

And though the "truth" of time may not be sufficiently 
"primary" to connect itself with the existence of God, nor 
of any thing outside this particular mode of existence, yet 
it does take hold of us and of all sublunary things. 

And as time is necessary for the accomplishment of nat- 
ural ends within this sphere of existence, we may profitably, 
perhaps, look over some of the things likely or certain to 
be accomplished before the world's history shall be wound 
up. And a little sober thinking may bring us to the con- 
clusion that probably thousands, and may be millions, of 
centuries are yet to pass over the head of this world before 
its gray hairs will bring it to decrepitude and its grave. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE UNDERTAKING OF CHRIST IN OUR PRESENT RELIGIOUS 
SYSTEM WAS THE THOROUGH AND COMPLETE RENOVA- 
TION AND CHRISTIANIZATION OF MANKIND. 

This world is to be Christianized. And it is to live long 
enough for the full completion of this purpose at least ; and 
whether it may live longer or much longer than this, is a 
question we will allude to in the future. 

The things necessary to the complete Christianization of 
mankind are not easily seen at a glance. We must step 
slowly, carefully, and look at a number of things in detail. 
The idea implies much. 

To make this a thorough Christian world requires, and 
the thing implies, completeness in all its various aspects. 
Individual religion, in the present condition of the world, 
does but faintly represent the state of the world as implied 
in a complete and universal Christianity. The entire social 
system must be reformed. Government of all kinds, from 



CHRISTIANIZATION OF MANKIND. 155 

tlie family to the State, while they need not be essentially 
different, must, nevertheless, be essentially reformed. A 
popular and thorough acquaintance with moral and mental 
philosophy is also necessary. Every thing that sin injured 
will be rectified, cured, renovated, brought back to its proper, 
natural place and use, as God at first intended. The sys- 
tem of remedy, in and through Christ, will not be partial, 
but absolutely complete. The benefits of the atonement 
will reach and cover every inch of ground which in any 
and every way was touched or affected by the sin of Adam. 

But the time necessary for this great work may not be 
graduated precisely to suit the notions, comprehension, and 
fastidious taste of every man. It will no doubt be done 
as soon as practicable; but we are, no doubt, very poor 
judges of practicability in this regard. Taking the entire 
race of mankind into the account, this work is, perhaps, a 
hundred times greater than our poor reasoning would be 
likely to teach. 

And then if, in the progress of these things, the onward 
course of the world should be arrested in the midst of its 
way, and the present system of nature and of grace should 
be terminated, to give place, it might be, for some other 
display of the Divine glory, it would argue a defect in the 
present system. It was broken off in the midst of a rising 
course. Something was begun and not finished. The plan 
was not well laid; and preparation, in part, at least, was 
made for nothing. God, who can not change, has changed; 
and that which was perfect has given place to something 
tetter. 

In reply to this, it need not be said we have already had 
more than one dispensation, because that would be essen- 
tially and notoriously untrue. In whatever sense theolo- 
gians may sometimes use the very ambiguous and generally 
ill-understood term dispensation, it is very clear that we 
have known no other than the Christian religion. This 
system of recovery from sin, and no other, was offered to 



156 DIUTU UNITY. 

and enjoined upon Adam. It was accepted unto salvation 
by Abel, by Enoch, by the prophets, and millions of others, 
from those days to these. The conditions of salvation are 
once offered, for there are no others. Nevertheless, in 
different ages of the world, and widely different conditions 
of men, different modes and various kinds of instrumentality 
are employed in teaching and enforcing this same system of 
grace. 

In the Divine economy nothing is begun and left un- 
finished. Systems are planned from the beginning. Every 
thing we see begins, progresses, and flows on to a natural 
end. Nothing is broken off in the midst. The Christian 
religion, which Abel believed, which Noah preached, and 
which John the Baptist enforced, and Christ and the Apos- 
tles so wonderfully elaborated, is to have its course here. 
It belongs to this world and to no other. Earth is its 
theater. This is the battle-field, and that and no other is 
the mode of warfare. And the weapons of our warfare are 
the only weapons known to the Divine economy of human 
salvation. Christ came forward as the champion of this 
system. He chose his field and his instruments. These 
are displayed in our written revelation. None others are 
known to the Divine economy. What he does he will do 
here. What he does not do here, and with these weapons, 
as he is now at work, does not belong to a Divine system 
of economy. Will he gain a complete triumph? or will it 
be a drawn battle? Are there few that be saved? or will 
the enemy have the larger portion in the end ? 

These are questions which the history of this world must 
answer; and they must be answered by the development 
of processes now in being. 

In this great work of curing a world of sin, something 
has already been done, blessed be the name of the Lord! 
but, comparatively, as yet not much. But none need fear. 
Christ will finish that which he has begun. Six thousand 
years ago the work was set in motion, and it may be six or 



BRIEF VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGION. 157 

six times six thousand years to come before it will have 
been finished. The triumph will yet be complete, and the 
world shall own no King but Christ. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

A BRIEF VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGION IN 
THE WORLD. 

Religion has been progressing in the world about six 
thousand years, and as yet, it is clear, not much, compara- 
tively, toward its thorough Christianization has been done. 
Let us see. There are about a thousand millions of people, 
and less than one-fourth, or about two hundred and forty 
millions, are commonly counted Christians. But by this 
little more is meant than that the countries they inhabit 
are generally called Christian. The other three-fourths of 
the world are Mohammedans, pagans of various kinds, and 
Deists, commonly called Jews. And of the two hundred 
and forty millions of Christians, one hundred and sixty mill- 
ions are Roman Catholics and adherents of the Russian or 
Greek Church. Among the Roman Catholics, it is not prob- 
able that more than one in a hundred professes to be pious. 
The remainder, and well-nigh all the Creek Church, are 
merely politically religious. 

And of those counted Protestants, how many consider 
themselves members of the Church personally, or make any 
pretensions to religion? This question can not be answered 
with any thing like accuracy, but it is not probable they 
will amount to over three or three and a quarter millions. 
And how many of these are truly pious is still another 
question. It may be very safely doubted whether there are 
a million of pious persons in the world; and it might turn 



158 DIUTITRNITT. 

out that — if we had the ability to ascertain correctly— the 
half of that would exceed the true number. We are now 
inquiring not after church-goers, or mere communicants, 
but real, pious, Bible Christians. 

Thus, in six 'thousand years, the merciful provisions of 
Almighty God for the evangelization of the world have 
succeeded in securing an interest in one person in a hundred, 
or one in two hundred persons living at one time. There 
are more living persons truly pious now than at any pre- 
vious time. This we would probably consider very slow 
progress; and yet it is highly probable, if not certain, that 
a person of a thousand times the knowledge we possess, to 
have looked at the matter from the beginning, would have 
regarded this progress as very fair, and as much as could 
be looked for in the circumstances of the case. Most likely 
the Christianization of the world is a work of far greater 
magnitude, and requiring much more time, than we would 
suppose. 

Those who look upon the thorough evangelization of this 
world — which means far more than many seem to imagine — - 
a world so deeply and exceedingly corrupt as this, in the 
space of a few hundred or a few thousand years, have either 
failed to mark its history and philosophic character well, 
or have very inadequate views of the great power of moral 
corruption. 

We will now, in some following chapters, proceed to look 
at a few things which are necessary to the world's Chris- 
tianization, which lie a little outside of mere personal re- 
generation, as it is considered in a strictly religious sense. 
Let us compare the world as it is with what it must be in 
a completely sinless condition. 



CONCERNING SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT. 159 



CHAPTER XLVIIX. 

CONCERNING SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT. 

How far is the world governed by common sense, and 
how far by superstitution, witchcraft, and fanaticism? We 
are apt to imagine that we live in a very enlightened and 
intelligent age. If we had the means of gathering rip and 
carefully estimating the sources or elements of power and 
influence among men, from all the avenues and unseen places 
whence this influence comes, we would be surprised to learn 
the extent to which the world is governed by stark folly 
rather than by sober reason. In some little of the very 
best portions of Europe and America, and among compara- 
tively a few select families and persons, not many of reason 
and sound discretion will be found to exert much govern- 
ing force. But even this is very partial and its circle very 
limited. 

And even in these best portions of the world, if you look 
into the back neighborhoods of almost every city, village, 
town, or country, or even among the domestics of the best 
families, you will find that the human mind is, to a great ex- 
tent, governed by absurdity, contradictions, and folly. And 
even among persons claiming a far better degree of intelli- 
gence, you will oftentimes find a belief in many things 
which can not be true, as firm and inflexible as their belief 
in the demonstrations of mathematics. 

It might be difficult to determine whether the power of 
witchcraft has really increased or lessened in the world 
within the last century. In some countries this belief and 
power has lessened, while in others it may have increased. 
It was only a thing of yesterday, almost — in 1735— that the 



160 DIUTURNITT. 

laws for the punishment of witchcraft were repealed both in 
England and Scotland. Previously to that time, witchcraft 
was a capital crime, and many persons were tried and exe- 
cuted as witches. And -the repeal of these laws called forth 
very loud complaints and remonstrances from the leading 
Churches. In England the repealing act was declared by 
the Church to be "contrary to the express law of God." — 
Ed. Encyclopedia. 

It is quite easy for us now to laugh at these laws and 
their makers and administrators, and to place them away 
back in the dark corners of earth, in the far-off ages of 
folly and superstition. But we must remember that the 
eighteenth century, or even the seventeenth, was not long 
ago. And, moreover, the very same judges who approved, 
administered, and enforced these laws against witchcraft 
are quoted to-day, in all our courts, with the highest defer- 
ence and respect; and their opinions, in the absence of ex- 
press local statute, are regarded the law of the land. There 
is not a supreme court nor any other in this country to- 
day, that would not be greatly influenced by the opinions 
of these same English barristers. Some men who are now 
regarded among the ablest jurisconsults the world has pro- 
duced, are some of these very judges who gravely and sol- 
emnly approved and administered these laws against witch- 
craft. So that, although we do not now hang and drown 
witches, we are not much above nor far removed from those 
who did. 

The name of Sir Matthew Hale presents one of the purest 
and brightest ornaments of English jurisprudence. In 1664 
he tried and condemned to the gallows two women for be- 
witching children. It is said that in this case this eminent 
Chief-Justice consulted on the subject with Sir Thomas 
Browne, a very eminent physician and scholar, and author 
of several medical works, and particularly of "A Treatise on 
Vulgar Errors;" and that the decision against the witches 
was in accordance with the advice strongly urged by this 



CONCERNING SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT. 161 

eminent physician, who was so competent to judge in such 
matters. But this case of adjudication by the -eminent 
High Chief-Justice, who was special counselor to the king, 
is but one instance among thousands, and is noted only be- 
cause of some striking peculiarities in the "witches" them- 
selves. A history of English jurisprudence in this respect 
reads strangely now. And still there were no more witches 
in England than in Scotland, Germany, Italy, and other 
portions of Europe. 

At the time of the Reformation, which has but very re- 
cently passed by, the Pope and the heads of the Romish 
Church, which certainly included men of very profound 
talents and learning, declared all Protestants to be witches, 
and in open league with the devil; that they associated with 
demons, and caused thereby wide-spread mischief to both 
man and beast. And many of the German Protestants and 
Waldenses in different parts of Europe were proceeded 
against, and drowned or burned as witches in pursuance of 
the Pope's bulls. 

Many of the instances of execution for witchcraft in Eng- 
land and various parts of Europe, of comparatively recent 
date, are at once strange, absurd, and rediculous. A sus- 
pected person to be seen squinting was at once deemed guilty. 
"Witches could not sink in water, it was held, and so, to 
test the question, they were thrown into a pond or river; 
and if they swam they were guilty, and if they sank and 
drowned they were innocent. A woman is burned by law 
for riding upon her own daughter, transformed into a horse 
and shod by the devil ; and others for having suspicious spots 
on the face. One was seen through a widow to take two imps 
out of her basket, the one black and other white. In vain it 
was attempted to be proved that they were bunches of wool : 
the execution took place. Such instances were nuumerous. 

Books on the various aspects and characteristics of witch- 
craft bear the names of men of talent and position. Sin- 
clair's "Satan's Invisible World Discovered," by a pious 
14 



162 DIUTTTRNITY. 

and talented man, proves "both that sucli assaults of Satan 
are most certainly practiced, and that the instruments thereof 
merit most severely to be punished." 

Mr. Addison, in the Spectator, in the account of his visit 
to Moll White, which he gives in his peculiarly mild style 
of gentle irony, speaks in rather disparaging terms of witch- 
craft, though he says he is neutral on the question. The 
general drift of his remarks go to show that witches and 
witchcraft were in his day — only a hundred and fifty years 
ago — at a discount generally among some of the best in- 
formed persons in the first literary circles in England, but 
that a belief in their genuineness was by no means confined 
to the vulgar and the unlearned. A little beyond this time, 
witchcraft was implicitly believed in by every body in Eng- 
land, high and low, learned and unlearned. 

The settlement of New England is but a recent thing. 
Connecticut was one of its best and most enlightened portions ; 
and who has not heard of the Blue Laws of Connecticut? 
Lycurgus lived three thousand and five hundred years be- 
fore New England was settled; but he made better laws in 
Sparta, at least in very many respects, than those of this 
recent and highly-cultivated people. 

In Massachusetts they named their principal town Salem, 
which means the abode of peace. Few have not heard of 
its fame in criminal jurisprudence. The history of "Salem 
Witchcraft" may be laughed at now, and may be attempted 
to be placed away oif among the legends of olden time. 
But this can not be allowed. It belongs to very recent 
times. The frequent hanging and drowning of men and 
women on solemn conviction of witchcraft, by the high ju- 
dicial functionaries of the Abode of Peace, is a part of the 
history of the judicial magistracy of days only just now 
passed by. 

Popular and legal witchcraft is traceable historically to 
periods about a thousand years ago. The necromancy of 
Scripture, though the same word is sometimes used in the 



CONCERNING SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT. 163 

translation, is quite a different thing. But if the days of 
witchcraft proper have passed by so far as civil jurispru- 
dence is concerned, it has by no means passed away, even 
in the best portions of the world, so far as concerns the 
practical private belief of multiplied thousands. And in 
other portions of the world prejudices, superstitions, and 
follies, equally unwise and dangerous, prevail greatly, not 
only in private judgment, but in legislative and judicial cir- 
cles. And to-day they govern mankind and influence human 
conduct to a very great extent. 

The Inquisition was established in the twelfth century, 
under the auspices of Pope Innocent III — a name most 
strangely coincident — and was kept in. vigorous use several 
hundred years, so beneficial were its operations believed to 
be. And the feast of St. Bartholomew was celebrated with 
grea.t pomp and popular display, in Paris, in 1572. 

These things are now, we seem to think, all long since 
laid aside on the musty shelves of by-gone ages; but they 
are remembered, at least, with seeming profit, by thousands ; 
for in the very present age they are, in variously modified 
forms, still in vogue, not only on the banks of the Ganges 
and the Amazon, but of the Seine, the Thames, and of the 
rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. 

It is a great error, indeed, if any of us have fallen into 
it, to suppose that the follies and evils now under considera- 
tion have passed away, and that in this respect a great im- 
provement has taken place in the world within fifty or a 
hundred years. In some of their grosser forms, the evils 
have abated of late in some very small portions of the world. 
This is the most that can be said. 

The inferences resulting from these facts are simple and 
necessary. The state of things plainly, and in the simplest 
and most unmistakable terms, set forth in Scripture, as a 
part of the future condition and history of this world, can 
not occur until the light of reason, sound judgment, and 
true philosophy shall become universal among mankind; 



164 DIUTURNITY. 

and that must come about in a natural way, as the product 
of existing processes. These things, therefore, testify to a 
new, crude, beginning state of mankind. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

CONCERNING THE STATE AND INFLUENCE OF POPULAR 
PREJUDICE. 

All teaching, lecturing, argument, discussion of all kinds 
ought to be for the discovery and development of truth ; and 
when it fails of this end, mind is perverted, language be- 
comes babbling, and the human faculties bring forth moral 
and intellectual results the very opposite, frequently, of what 
was intended. 

Prejudice is not always necessarily erroneous. It is the 
hasty result of feeling rather than thinking. It is a sort 
of conclusion or judgment which governs a person, without 
the assistance of the reasoning powers of the mind. The 
great characteristic difference between man and the lower 
animals is, that the latter are governed by their feelings, 
while the former are, or ought to be, governed by their 
judgment. The feelings sometimes lead in the right direc- 
tion; but there is no certainty in this. For the most part 
they lead in wrong directions, and frequently to most ruin- 
ous consequences. 

The more we see of the world, the more we must be con- 
vinced that men are generally governed by prejudice and 
prepossession. This may at first seem a hard charge to 
bring against mankind; but I must be understood to predi- 
cate the statement of the age in which we live, and not 
against the race as such. In a better and more mature con- 
dition of things, the case will be different. 



INFLUENCE OF POPULAR PREJUDICE. 165 

In ecclesiastical or religious controversies, where is the 
man who argues the question without bias, as ready to be 
convinced against as for his previous notions? Such men 
are one in a thousand. Tell me a man's preconceived no- 
tions upon contested sectarian questions, and one may easily 
determine the opinions he will cling to, though it be in the 
face of the most demonstrative and convincing arguments. 

Popular adherence to political parties, every one knows, 
is very seldom the result of mature thinking and examination. 
It is the result of mere casualty in association, or some 
social incident or circumstance scarcely seen or known at 
the time of its occurrence. The thinking or examination, 
what there was, was done after the opinion was unalterably 
fixed. 

I know of no rule by which we are to determine whether 
our conclusions result from independent reasoning or from 
prejudice. We can judge of this only from general circum- 
stances and rigid examination. Judicial men and a few 
students are the only persons, almost, who, by rigid disci- 
pline are capable of keeping themselves at any thing like a 
safe distance from the malaria of popular feeling. There 
are a few men in the world, and but a few, who reason. 
Most men believe what they wish or hope, or settle down 
upon random thoughts as they chance to arise. The very 
modes and processes of thinking with the masses are of a 
juvenile and illogical character. 

This state of things must undergo a great and thorough 
change, and this change requires time. It must be natural. 
Existing processes, though they may .seem slow or scarcely 
moving, must bring it about. The thinking powers of the 
race must be matured, and become healthful, vigorous, true, 
manlike, Godlike. 



166 * DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER L. 

THE POPULAR MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES IN 
THE BEST PORTIONS OF SOCIETY SHOWS THEIR COMPAR- 
ATIVELY RECENT INTRODUCTION. 

In giving us the revelation, it must have been the Divine 
intention that it be universally received, and well and thor- 
oughly understood, by all mankind. This is necessarily im- 
plied in the indisputable doctrine we keep in view all the 
while, that Christianity is to completely and perfectly evan- 
gelize the world, and present mankind a sinless people. 
Otherwise we run into the absurdity of supposing a world 
of sanctified Christians of the highest and purest conceiva- 
ble caste, and the revelation of G-od but partially known 
among them. Moreover, it is unnatural, and impeaches the 
Divine wisdom and prudence to suppose that such a revela- 
tion, to such a people and for such purposes, would, in its 
final course and end, confine itself to a portion of the race, 
and be but partially understood among them. 

Now, what is the state of popular knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures? But a small part of the world have it at all as yet. 
And in regard to Christendom — and the very best portions 
thereof — what is the case? Take the best city, county, 
parish, town, village, or ward of any town or city in England 
or America, and I inquire what proportion of persons in any 
fifty, in any ten, or in any one of these have ever read the 
Word of God carefully through five times? How many have 
spent more time in studying the Scriptures than in attending 
to some unimportant matter of business? What proportion 
of such people have ever read and carefully studied the Bible? 
What portion have read five chapters in five years? 



MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 167 

A few ministers, a few Sunday-school scholars, and a few 
of the professors of religion have some little knowledge of 
Scripture. Beyond this the Scriptures are practically, almost 
wholly, unknown. 

A few years ago there was a book published in England, 
about the size of the Bible, the author of which was a 
polished prince of buffoonery of most extraordinary talent, 
most wofully perverted. In this book the low exhibtions of 
a wonderful knowledge of human nature were well adapted 
to fascinate and engage the attention of large classes of per- 
sons easily pleased. And it is not too much to say that this 
book of Shakespeare's plays, claiming only to exhibit folly 
and fiction, is the successful rival of the revelation of God 
in many circles of literature and refinement. As to a prac- 
tical reception and use of the Word of G-od, there is, per- 
haps, not so much difference between countries which are 
called Christian and those called heathen as many might 
suppose. 

In high political positions men are oftentimes found who 
are almost totally destitute of all practical knowledge of 
the Christian revelation. In this country they are always 
found in State legislatures and in Congress, and occasionally 
in Gubernatorial and the Presidential chairs. In what sense 
are they Christians? 

Revelation, evidently, and in the plainest terms, designed 
to be universal, has, as yet, reached the rarest few of some 
very select portions of mankind. 



168 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LI. 

MORAL PHILOSOPHY IS IN ITS CRUDEST AND MOST INITIA- 
TORY STATE. 

So little has the world settled down upon a system of the 
philosophy of morals, that the ablest doctors do not agree 
as to its elementary principles; and although a treatise on 
this subject is but a convenient arrangement of the ethics 
of the Bible, and a comparison of them with the ethics of 
nature, yet in many points these have not as yet, by any 
means, been classified and uniformly understood. 

The term moral philosophy, in a. scientific sense, embraces 
much more than is intended to be even alluded to in this brief 
chapter. Indeed, it is intended here only to call attention 
to the great ignorance of mankind on the general subject. 

The moral law inquires what ought and ought not to be 
done in given circumstances. And it involves the idea of 
intelligence in the subject, enabling him to apply the moral 
precepts — not to make or change them — as the great moral 
Designer intended. 

Now, this moral law is perfectly and most exactly adapted, 
in every particular, to the nature of the beings for whose 
control and advantage it is designed. It is adapted to his 
moral and social nature with as much exactness as is light to 
the eye or food to the nourishment of the body, or the atmos- 
phere to the lungs ; and to infringe or violate this moral law, 
in any way or in any degree, would be as disadvantageous to 
the moral man as it would be to the physical to violate the law 
of seeing by wounding the eye or by shutting out the light 
from it, or by infringing the law of eating or of breathing. 

The physical laws, or the laws of nature, by the observ- 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 169 

ance of which we eat, sleep, and walk or talk, are not more 
necessary to be held inviolate, for man's benefit than are 
the moral laws. 

And yet who believes this? Who acts upon the princi- 
ple? Who have learned these things? Except one in a 
thousand, men act in open and notorious violation of the 
moral rules of living every day. Nothing is more common. 
With but few exceptions, the moral world is governed as 
the beasts are governed. Appetite, lust, ambition, and mo- 
mentary gratification is the law of the world. Retaliation 
and revenge for real or supposed injuries is taught as a 
science and practiced as a profession by most men. And 
we are so accustomed to these things that they produce 
neither wonder nor surprise; otherwise we would be startled 
with horror at the thought of a person doing wrong. It 
would be conclusive evidence of insanity. 

Moral philosophy teaches of moral agency. It supposes 
man to have an intellect, a conscience, a free will, and some 
degree of intelligence. And it supposes man to be account- 
able for his conduct. But who has taken the pains to look 
carefully into these things? Who governs his conduct by 
these rules? And even among those who do study these 
rules, and try in some sort to live by them, there is great 
diversity of opinion on the subject. The freedom of the 
will is seriously questioned by many. Indeed, it is not yet 
a settled matter whether the will is a faculty of the mind, 
or the mind a faculty of the will. The theory of Locke 
and others is seriously questioned by some. 

But I am not now attempting to speak so much of a few 
learned men as of the teeming masses. Go out into the 
street, and inquire of every man and woman you meet until 
you meet a thousand, and see what they know of the sub- 
ject. Most of them never heard of such a thing before. 
And away from these better and more enlightened circles 
still less is known. Not one man in a thousand could un- 
derstand what you were talking about. 
15 



170 DIUTURNITY. 

And, surely, it can not be claimed that the world has 
grown to adult years, according to the standard of both na- 
ture and revelation, until at least the philosophy of morals 
shall be thoroughly understood by all people. Without at 
least this much of progress, there can be no such thing as 
a sinless condition of mankind or any thing approaching it. 



CHAPTER LII. 



CONCERNING THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS LITERA- 
TURE — WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT MUST BE. 

It has been well observed that writing is the mightiest 
instrumentality on earth. By this means the mind approxi- 
mates Omnipotence. We naturally look, then, to literature 
as the chief instrument in forming a better race of human 
beings. We look to superior minds, which are capable of 
acting through this channel, for those impulses and moving 
causes by which the world is to be carried onward in its 
rising march to maturity. A few men are the depositaries 
of a higher power, and on them the better hopes of the 
world depend. 

One of the laws of psychology is, that the intellect en- 
larges and strengthens by the investigation of subjects of 
general interest and the exposition of them for the good of 
others. Hence, it is more blessed to give than to receive. 
A free and liberal distribution for the benefit of others, who 
are more in need than ourselves, is the best and surest way 
of enlarging our own store. Communication is as valuable 
as solitary thinking. Great and valuable thoughts are sel- 
dom fully possessed and appreciated at home. They require 
utterance. 



THE PRESENT STATE OP RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. 171 

One of the noblest and most healthful labors of genius 
is to clothe its conceptions in clear and comly forms, and 
give them existence in the souls of other men. Thus it is 
that literature creates as well as manifests intellectual power. 
No man can live within himself. The master needs the re- 
flex influence of his own teaching. And thus mind almost 
ceases to be individual, and becomes the common prop- 
erty of the community; and, in return, the community, by 
the very receiving of instruction, pays back to the central 
intellect every measure it receives with large usury. 

But this rule will not apply with full force to every thing 
that is called literature. It is only on the great subjects 
of nature and morals that the mind strengthens itself by 
elaborate composition. And here, it must be remembered, 
are the great staples of literature, properly so called. 

To give effectual utterance to such truths requires the 
joint and full exercise of all the powers of invention, im- 
agination, and sensibility, as well as the cultivation of 
taste and the high appreciation of moral justice. It is fre- 
quently the case, but not always, that thoughts which are 
newly conceived are like the rough marble, requiring fervid 
and powerful Utterance to smooth the rough and heavy 
mass, to give it polish, beauty, and strength. And, again, 
many of the newest and best conceptions are lost to the 
public treasury for lack of a private till, sufficiently secure 
and capacious for its custody until an opportunity offers for 
its utterance or record. 

A writer who would make his subject visible and power- 
ful must endeavor to unite a strong and well-connected logic 
with a fervid eloquence; he must throw it into different pos- 
tures and place it in different points of light; he must create 
for it beautiful and attracting forms, and give it a natural- 
ness which will fit the flexibility if not the straight-edge of 
the mind. How stimulating and invigorating are such ef- 
forts as these. And it is only in writing, and in laborious 



172 DIUTURNITY. 

and elaborate composition, too, that such efforts are prop- 
erly called forth and drilled. 0, what a wise arrangement 
for public wealth and private luxury ! 

We owe a great debt to those pure and wise minds of 
this and other lands, who have delivered to us in writing 
their best and highest thoughts, as well as their purest and 
holiest feelings. But still the great mass of existing litera- 
ture which may be called religious has been produced under 
such a variety of circumstances, advantageous and disad- 
vantageous, that it must be placed under a rigid review, 
and must not be estimated at more than its value. It may 
well be believed to be so defective that, if the religious, 
moral, and philosophic history of this world and its nations 
shall ever see the light, it has yet to be written. Men sur- 
rounded and involved in the prejudices and influences of 
monarchies, aristocracies, and dynasties, as well as the cor- 
rupt and vitiated republics which as yet have been brought 
forth, would require to be a little more than human to be 
equal to the task of supplying mankind with a healthful 
religious literature. And then there have been the disad- 
vantages, paradoxical as it may seem, of a redundancy of 
personal ease and private leisure with many of the authors. 
A soft carpet and cushioned sofa are not generally useful 
to a field officer in time of war. And so with the student 
of nature and religion. Mere application is not always sufr 
ficient. Strong thoughts and simple reasoning are often- 
times evoked only by a felt necessity of grappling with ad- 
verse circumstances and pressing demands. Man seldom 
puts forth all the power that is in him until he finds him- 
self in a strait. 

And so it is that many great principles are yet to be 
settled in morals, in criticism, and in politics. And, more 
still, great questions in religion are yet to come up and be 
settled, and their very principles themselves are to be res 
cued from the corruption, the thraldom, and the supersti-* 
tions of past ages. 



THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. 173 

And we have yet to inaugurate a popular style of litera- 
ture a little higher than most of our best productions. We 
must reach and occupy the platform where the Principia, 
the Analogy, the Pilgrim's Progress, and the Paradise Lost 
were composed. Nay, we must aim higher and stand above 
former achievements. We must think more and write less. 

The sanctified advocates of such a religious literature as 
the world needs and must have, must rise in the giant 
strength of a high and holy calling, and make unsanctified 
poets and unhallowed manufacturers of literary impurity 
and licentiousness, and immoral traffickers in science, and 
flippant novelists and romancers, who pander to the lowest 
passions, and all such like pretenders and peddlers before 
the public, give place and know and feel the inferiority of 
their positions and their callings to this of ours. The fatal 
error that religious productions are second-rate must be 
dispelled by a first-rate advocacy of a cause so transcend- 
ently superior to theirs. They can, and must, and will be 
placed in the background on the great theater of thought 
by clear superiority. Writers on Christian morals must be 
recognized as masters. Our subjects must be treated by 
master-hands; and thus the thought, the feeling, the ex- 
perience of the nations of earth must be moved onward to 
the very fountains of living waters, where an invigorating 
literature, which flows fresh from the very streams of Al- 
mighty grace and goodness, shall slake the very thirst of 
the soul. Our mission is no less than this: to furnish 
mankind with a literary aliment which will forestall the 
productions of those who write for fame or spite or ambi- 
bition, or who hire themselves for pay. Those who fill the 
news-shops with wares suited to a vitiated market, who en- 
deavor to write the stage and it's clowns into respectability, 
and lead unwary beauty and innocence astray, while they 
compliment and bolster each other, must be taught that 
the authors of religious literature are the called of God to 
lead the world on to greatness. 



174 DIUTURNITY. 

The newness of the world and the recent introduction 
of religion, together with the ignorance and the prejudices 
of priestcraft and religious officials and pretenders, have 
caused the Scriptures to be skimmed over superficially; and 
a few dogmatisms and catch-words have, to a great extent, 
supplied the place of sober deduction and sound doctrine. 

Questions which seriously engaged the mind and talent 
of the Church but a few years ago, are now measurably 
thrown aside with our nursery lessons, and other questions, 
lying in a stratum lower down, come up for inquiry and in- 
vestigation. They in turn will be laid aside and give place 
to others ; and thus it is that, by and by, in the course of 
tmie, in the riper ages, the very innermost temple will be 
reached, the shekinah itself will be seen and understood, 
and the Urim and Thummim will be read and understood 
and comprehended by all men. 

In respect of mere primary religious doctrines, the Bible 
may be said to have been read and understood. But still 
it is a great magazine of most important truths, to be grad- 
ually unfolded and comprehended, from age to age, as its 
deep and still deeper recesses may be fathomed, as one ac- 
quirement after another shall give opportunity. 

When we look back on the literary productions of the 
past, we see the working of a variety of principles contend- 
ing for the mastery, or perhaps for admiration. Patriotism 
and national feeling have had their share; a reverence for 
antiquity and old names and phrases have had its share; 
skepticism, romance, and even licentiousness have had their 
share; and priestcraft and religious quackery have had 
their share; and from these sources we do not look for 
greater advancement in mind than they have already pro- 
duced. The stream will not rise higher than the source. 

To the religious principle, then, and to that alone, are we 
to look for a higher, more advanced, and more enduring 
literature, which is to carry the world onward and upward 
despite all opposing causes. If any one should doubt this, 



THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. 175 

let him remember that man's relation to G-od is the great 
idea and central truth of our being. All other considera- 
tions are subordinate ; nay, they are insignificant. And we 
look to the unfoldings and development of this relation as 
the stay and staff of the intellect as well as the heart. No 
man can be just to himself, nor rightly appreciate his own 
existence, or put forth all his powers with heroic confidence 
and high expectation, or deserve to be the leader and in- 
spirer of other minds, until he has broken through the 
flimsy and ephemeral cobwebs of mere social life and tem- 
poral society, and has sought and found communion with 
his Maker ; until he intelligibly regards himself as the re- 
cipient and legate of the Infinite; until he feels himself 
consecrated to the aims and ends of religion and holy pur- 
pose ; until he, almost without an effort, rises above the 
rewards of human opinion; until he is moved by a higher 
impulse than mere fame. 

Religious literature is neither national nor personal. It 
belongs to the race ; it is the common property of man. The 
productions of genius are the inheritance of mankind. As 
sacred and moral literature rises and deepens in thought and 
power, the great mind of earth advances. No man goes 
before it; nor is any one so far behind it as to be out of its 
reach. One can not suppose a ripe world without a ripe 
literature. And although, in order to a ripe world, it is not 
necessary that every man should be a genius and a scholar, 
it is necessary that every man should read and understand, 
admire and be governed by, an elevated and polished re- 
ligious literature. 

In this department of human advancement, then, the world 
has something yet to do. If we could ascend some Pisgah 
of sufficient elevation, and with the vision of a prophet could 
discern the far-off magnificence of a vital, grand, and polished 
literature, powerful, pervading, and popular, we would likely 
conclude that as yet no man had more than entered its ves- 
tibule. Aud as to the people of the world — mercy! how 



176 DIUTURNITY. 

few have ever heard or dreamed that there was such a 
thing ! 

The world can rise and go forward only as a sanctified 
literature, drawn from the Word of Grod, leads it on. In- 
dividual forgiveness of sin and personal Christianity there 
may be, and most certainly is, oftentimes ; but a mature 
and sanctified world, in the absence of a thoroughly popu- 
ular and sanctified literature, is an impossibility. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

CONCERNING THE AGENCY AND NECESSITY OF LITERATURE 
IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 

The usefulness of literature in the advances of religion 
has been generally doubted until very recently; and it is 
either openly discouraged or not at all encouraged by very 
large portions not only of the world but of the Church at 
the present day. Indeed, the revival of letters after the 
gloom of the dark ages is but the history of yesterday. By 
a very few it is now seen that Christianity can proceed only 
hand in hand with intelligence. Priestcraft flourishes but 
in ignorance, but Christianity can grow only in a cultivated 
soil. 

An uneducated man may be a Christian, but is not likely 
to be. But an ignorant community can not be a religious 
community and remain so for any considerable length of 
time. The religion of an ignorant man is of a low caste, 
and is not likely to produce religion in others. Ignorant 
parents are not likely to bring up religious children. 

The G-ospel, as it is now working, looks to the entire and 
perfect Christianization of the entire race — the complete 
overthrow of the works of darkness — and it is exactly ad- 



AGENCY ANI> NECESSITY OF LITERATURE, ETC. 177 

justed to that end. Neither more nor less means are in- 
stituted and brought into requisition than are precisely 
necessary. The intellect is an instrument of religion, and 
so it must be used to this end, according to the intention 
of Providence. Education is a means of grace, or otherwise 
revelation would not be given us in a literary form. 

The world must not only become Christians — all living 
men at any one period — but they must be such kind of 
Christians — so wise, so thoroughly versed in Scripture teach- 
ing, so well acquainted with human nature, with the springs 
of human action, with God and nature; so "apt to teach;" 
they must feel so powerfully the weight of responsibility as 
the guardians and teachers of the rising and future genera- 
tions — that the world will be kept holy through their instru- 
mentality. We must not only be a sinless world at any one 
time, but a sufficiently elevated and progressed race, that the 
sinless condition looked to in Scripture may result from the 
causes and instrumentality now in operation. But the means 
of salvation — learning being one of them — must be brought 
into full play and act its part before this consummation 
can be reasonably looked for. 

Then let any one look at the present literary condition of 
the world and compare it with a high and universal literary 
condition. By this I do not mean to intimate that every man 
must become a scholar, strictly so; but I do hold that it is 
necessary that all men should be reasonably educated, that 
unlettered ignorance be no more seen. Men must not only 
be Christians themselves but Christian teachers; for unless 
every man and woman be a Christian teacher, the rising 
generations can not be perfectly taught. 

And no man can thus attain the position of a Christian 
teacher until he becomes well versed in the learning of the 
age in which he lives. And this standard will most likely 
be reared much higher than men now would be likely to 
suppose. Perhaps our best colleges now would be as only 
primary schools. Capacity, not experience, is the measure. 



178 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

CONCERNING JUVENILE CONVERSION WHAT IT IS AND WHAT 

IT MUST BE. 

This point must have a place somewhere in this treatise. 
There has been some controversy about it. It is admitted 
that conversion sometimes takes place at a period as early 
in life as intellectual development will allow. But these 
are said to be very rare cases. The question, then, seems to 
be whether it is or is not practicable in all cases. Or, may 
children be so reared as not to commit sin? If there be a 
period in human life when personal salvation can not be 
attained, then there is a time when sin is unavoidable, 
which is contradictory. Sin is the transgression of the law — 
the rejection of the offer of salvation. Sin can, therefore, 
never be unavoidable. The age of the person has nothing 
to do with it. Ability to do wrong implies ability to do 
right. Religion is nothing more than doing right. Trans- 
gression supposes ability to refrain from transgression. A 
young child is incapable of transgression, and so incapable 
of exercising saving faith ; and after a time he is capable 
of both. We may not in each case know where this line 
of separation is, but we may know what it is. How long 
must a person continue in sin before he can receive Christ? 
There can be no such period. The probability of salvation 
is a different thing. 

All children are born into the world with a natural ca- 
pacity for salvation ; and not only so, but with a possi- 
bility of immediate salvation by faith in Christ. There is 
no law of either nature or grace preventing salvation by 
faith in every case at the earliest period that sin is possible. 



CONCERNING JUVENILE CONVERSION. 179 

And if salvation in every case, or in any ease, does not take 
place at this early period, it is because of incidental cir- 
cumstances disadvantageous to religion, or the existence of 
things which -ought not to exist, surrounding the child. 
He is born of a very irreligious ancestry and into an irre- 
ligious atmosphere, surrounded by the sins of others. He 
follows the example he sees — drinks in the spirit which 
surrounds him. He is the subject of moral gravitation. 

His innate corruption is another matter. That merely 
produces a tendency to sin. But this tendency, predisposi- 
tion, bias, leaning toward sin may or may not be overcome 
by favorable surroundings at the earliest possible period, 
or at a later period. Unfortunately, in these current ages, 
every one is surrounded by an unfavorable state of things, 
and so, nearly all are rushing heedlessly into the vortex. 

It is not practicable, it is readily admitted, to raise any 
certain children so that they will not sin. But that, by no 
means, shows the thing to be impossible. That which is 
impracticable can not be done because of some incidental 
hindrances that might not exist; that which is impossible 
can not be done at all, because of some intervening law of 
nature. 

A conversion at the earliest moment may never have taken 
place, and it may not be practicable in any living instance; 
and yet, in an improved condition of the world, they might 
be occasional, and in a more improved condition frequent, 
and then uniform, and then universal. The two things 
which prevent uniform early conversions — both of which 
will, in time, become gradually and, after long lapse of time, 
finally removed — are, first, improper example; and, sec- 
ondly, an irreligious ancestry. On this latter point a few 
observations may not be out of place. 

We are but very little acquainted with the laws of trans- 
mission from parent to progeny; yet the law is uniform, if 
not universal. It is seen in every individual instance, in 
all the animal as well as the vegetable world. The ming- 



180 DIUTURNITT. 

ling of these descending currents in the male and female 
lines causes trie irregularities we see in individuals of the 
same stock. The universal law of generation is, that- prog- 
eny inherits, or tends or inclines to inherit, all the habi- 
tudes as well as the characteristics of its ancestry more or 
less definitely ; though the further you go from the imme- 
diate parents the feebler the tendency is. 

Now suppose Christianity to continue in the world, two 
things will follow necessarily. First, religion will improve 
more and more rapidly, until the time will come when the 
general advance will be as much in one day as it is now 
in a year, and even much more; and, secondly, the time 
must come when all children will be born of a very pious 
ancestry for many generations; and so, after sufficient time, 
all children certainly will be converted to a very high and 
sanctified state of religion at the earliest period that intel- 
lectual development will allow; that is, at a period as early 
as they are capable of sin. 

The question is not whether children born in these fa- 
vorable circumstances would be religious. We certainly 
know they would not. The question is whether they would 
be more likely to become religious. And the more favorable 
these circumstances are, the higher this probability rises, 
ad infinitum. 

And so the natural and religious processes and agencies 
now at work must bring about the sinless period of which 
Scripture speaks so abundantly; but in the very new or 
juvenile ages of the world in which we live these results 
are not to be looked for. But we can see the direction in 
which we are drifting, though as yet it be slowly. 



THE WORLD AND THE GOVERNMENT OP INFANTS. 181 



CHAPTER LV. 

CONCERNING THE VERY GREAT INJURY THE WORLD RE- 
CEIVES BY THE UNIFORM FAILURES IN THE GOVERNMENT 
OF INFANTS. 

It is truly wonderful how easily we become accustomed 
and reconciled to almost any thing. Fashion— custom — is a 
most wonderful power. It subdues almost all our reason, 
stifles apprehension, quells fear, calms and pacifies wonder, 
and reduces the most startling enormities to commonplaces. 
We are ready to tolerate if not approve almost any thing, 
if custom only sanctions it. By tenfold the greatest wrongs 
and injuries received by mankind are perpetrated by parents, 
particularly mothers, upon their own children. The real 
injuries thus inflicted in the nursery work more real mis- 
fortune among us than . war, pestilence, and famine com- 
bined. Indeed, the former are the progenitors of the latter, 
and of almost all other human misfortunes and disad- 
vantages. 

Parents seem to have no knowledge whatever of the in- 
fantile constitution. They recognize none of its laws. They 
seem to forget that nature has any laws, and heedlessly 
blunder on, governed by mere parental fondness. 

It is said that Napoleon once asked Madam De Stael what 
he could do to elevate the French nation; and she re- 
plied, " Cause proper instruction to be given to the mothers 
of the French people." The shrewd woman gave the Em- 
peror a wholesome lesson, but imposed on him a greater 
task than ever Wellington did. 

The common impression is, that the great and important 
matters of life and the progress of the world are the affairs 



182 DIITTURNITY. 

of state, tlie arranging of governments, the election of pres- 
idents, and of emperorships, the making and repealing of 
laws and national treaties, navigation, building cities, per- 
suing commerce, waging wars, the affairs of courts of judi- 
cature, etc. Others esteem what is commonly called educa- 
tion — that is, that part of pupilage which is committed to 
schools and colleges — of prime importance. But it seems 
to me, and the truth undoubtedly is, that the proper culture 
of infants in the cradle and nursery is far more important than 
all these together. I would not put the preaching of the 
GrOspel and inculcation of Christianity in a category second 
to any human affairs, lest I might be misunderstood. Yet 
I do not believe that these things can be prosecuted with 
any great success until we have great and radical reforms 
in the government of the occupants of the cradle. 

In looking forward into the rise and progress of nations 
and of man, we inquire at the doors of courts, cabinets, 
legislatures, the magistracy, colleges, marts of trade and 
finance, and such places, for the means and instruments of 
improvement. And here you will, no doubt, get some in- 
formation; but the nursery and the cradle can give you ten- 
fold more than they all. 

What is the formation of character, and how and when is 
this thing done? There is one and but one characteristic 
in man pertaining to the formation of his character, which 
is fundamental, vital, and central. Around this all other 
characteristics revolve as satellites, or mere attendants. This 
principle becomes unalterably established at a very early 
period; generally before the second or third, and uniformly 
before the fourth year closes. Rarely, indeed, but most 
likely never, can it be moved as late as five years. This 
great principle is obedience — obedience to law. 

After the character is set nothing human can change it. 
You can give it some pruning and polish, which, indeed, 
many erroneously regard as the formation of character. 
This is the Chesterfieldiad doctrine. 



THE WORLD AND THE GOVERNMENT OF INFANTS. 183 

The ordinary education, the cultivation of manners, the 
improvement of taste and social courtesies, the smoothing 
of conversation, the elevation of amiability, learning of 
hooks and music, and even religion itself— all these are a 
very different thing from the formation of the character. 
The moral character is formed, shaped, outlined, its bent is 
given to it, long before any of these accomplishments begin. 

"A pebble in the tiny rill 
» Has changed the course of many a river ; 

A dew-drop on the baby-plant 

Has warped the giant oak forever." 

It is highly probable, if not certain, that the basis of 
character is fixed before there is in the child any clear per- 
ception of right and wrong. No one forms his own char- 
acter. If let alone at this very early period, it will soon 
establish itself after the model of Adam, and is then not 
to be changed. 

The first moral development in all cases is anger. Tiiis 
is perhaps universal. The child does not know that anger 
is wrong; it does not know that any thing is wrong. It 
acts instinctively. Anger is not only thus early developed 
uniformly, but it is the only trait, except kindness, that is 
discernible for a long period — perhaps a whole year or more. 
And if the proper steps be not taken to remove or subdue 
this anger, it soon becomes immovably fixed, and forms the 
root of all the vices of after life, not excepting licentious- 
ness, which would seem to spring from other sources. 

Now, if these things be so, the great question of life and 
improvement is, how can these early uprisings of anger be 
controlled and eradicated from the other materials which 
compose the outline of human character? 

There is one may and one time, and there is no other way 
nor no other time, when this can be possibly done. 

It must be done at or near the very first. If suffered to 
grow until the child begins to reason so as to become a sub- 



184 DIUTURNITY. 

ject of moral control, it has become permanent and can not 
be removed. Afterward it can only be pruned or smoothed 
over by veneering, so that the deformity be not absolutely 
offensive. And the only way possible in which it can be 
done is by absolute, arbitrary power. In the utmost kind- 
ness there must be an invincible promptness of control 
which knows no yielding. 

Anger crops out more or less early and more or less fre- 
quent in children of different temperament. But whenever 
it appears in much or little, and it be not promptly sub- 
dued, it immediately becomes stronger by perhaps tenfold 
for the next occasion ; and then at every repetition, until 
very soon it is beyond human power to subdue it. After- 
ward it may be checked, and by various means kept gen- 
erally inside of outrage, but the monster inheritance is there, 
never to be wholly subdued. 

In most cases, it is quite probable the child is past hope 
before he completes the first, second, or third years of his 
life. Not past hope of being raised so as to compare well 
with others, but past the hope of ever having that spirit of 
anger wholly subdued. 

One of the first fruits of anger is falsehood. This comes 
to the support of its progenitor. And when these two 
champions of wrong begin to establish themselves well, the 
whole flood-gates of iniquity are opened, and the child is 
a veteran sinner before he is out of the nursery. 

Whipping children is a simple barbarity. It is "neces- 
sary," we are told. Yes, verily, it is necessary. The feeble, 
unskillful parent has suffered it to become necessary. The 
child deserves it, and you can not get along without it. 
But the parent deserves it far more. The necessity of beat- 
ing the child like a brute ought not to have been suffered 
to arise. Prompt, full, unhesitating obedience, at the proper 
time, would have prevented all the mischief. 

The miserable incompetency of foolish parents in not re- 
pressing this spirit of anger and rebellion when it was tender 



THE WORLD AND THE GOVERNMENT OP INFANTS. 185 

and capable of being subdued, has resulted in the misfor- 
tunes and irregularities we see in society. In almost all 
cases this unruly spirit is not only suffered to grow without 
molestation, but it is greatly encouraged. Falsehood and 
combativeness are the two great first-fruits of anger; and 
these things are generally taught and encouraged in almost 
all our families. Few parents reflect, and indeed very few 
are capable of understanding, how little a thing, at a very 
tender age, will give encouragement to anger, quarreling, and 
falsehood. Right here lies the great secret of infantile train- 
ing. In the first three months' time of a child's life it has 
learned much, and the impressions are deep. This learning 
is not intellectual, or but slightly so, but it has given a 
strong bent and force to the character. 

In after years, when the child has become capable of 
reasoning, the rough excrescences of these fundamental vices 
may be so far smoothed down that they will probably not 
amount to outrage, but the monster demon is there. In 
what is called good society, pride will stimulate youths to 
appear well, particularly in females; and self-esteem and 
respect for their parents and friends will cause many youths 
of good sense to hide their deformed character, which they 
can do to some considerable extent. Very much of what 
we look upon as amiability and good character is a com- 
mendable deception, by which the real deformity of character 
is kept partially covered up. 

And those who become religious have all their life-long 
to struggle against that strong, stubborn frame-work of 
anger and rebellion. The early formed incubus follows them 
as closely as the skin, and they can not separate from it. 
While the susceptibilities were tender as the sensitive-plant, 
while the wax was soft to the slightest. touch, anger, with 
its staff and surrounding supporters, was either cultivated 
by thoughtless, foolish parents, or by them suffered to grow 
wild and rank as the thistle, until now they are fixed, and 
there is no power earthly that can remove them. Educa- 
16 



186 DIUTURNITT. 

tion, the cultivation of good manners, and religion may 
keep them in check somewhat, but the unfortunate sufferer 
must suffer on. 

Children must be governed. By this I mean they must 
be made to submit to arbitrary authority, promptly, im- 
plicitly, and without a reason. It must be done, if ever 
done, before they are capable of knowing there is such a 
thing as a reason. Two children are crying from anger, 
and they are both made to hush; the one in a way which 
greatly represses the angry spirit, and the other in a way 
that strengthens it tenfold. The former is compelled to 
obey the arbitrary law of the parent promptly, and the 
other is induced or prevailed upon in some way, by hire or 
falsehood or flattery, to do so. 

There is a spirit in children that must be broken. The 
spirit of anger, of rebellion, of opposition and contention 
must be broken, despoiled, subdued, in order that they may 
enter life with some fair prospect of success. And there 
is no way by which this can be done but by arbitrary force. 
Submission must be peremptory and unconditional, and with- 
out a reason. If it be overcome by reasons why, then it is 
not subdued, but only temporarily set aside, and that but 
partially. 

At the first risings of real anger is the time for the ap- 
plication of this correction. Then, with a proper course of 
mild kindness and prompt, resolute control, the task is not 
difficult. Anger is easily distinguished from fretfulness, 
which may arise from many causes; or the former may re- 
sult from the latter. The first thing a child knows is law 
and subjection. These things are clearly discerned long 
before any moral reasons are discernible. But the mother, 
poor unthinking woman, concludes that it is quite out of 
the question to attempt any control of the child at this 
early period, except to pacify it when fretful or angry. It 
can not understand what you mean, she says. There is just 
one thing it can understand and but one, and that is sub- 



. THE WORLD AND THE GOTXTKNMENT OF INFANTS. 187 

mission to authority. This conquest fully made a few times 
and the battle is over. The demon enemy of mankind is 
conquered in this instance, and you have now only to notice 
and repress the occasional uprisings afterward, and you have 
a child fit to raise and become a man or woman. Govern- 
ment now is not difficult. A habit of obedience is soon 
formed; submission to authority is no more irksome nor 
humiliating. 

And now having a foundation laid upon which a charac- 
ter may be builded, you have the opportunity of building 
a character. You have now something to build on; other- 
wise you have nothing. Now when the first openings of 
moral consciousness appear, let it be properly directed. 
Now the child may, with proper care and attention, be 
trained to advantage ; but otherwise it is impossible. Efforts 
and labor avail nothing so far as the removal of this one 
great difficulty is concerned. But now the labors of govern- 
ment may be applied to profit. 

Much more might be profitably said on this subject. I 
have intended only to glance at a few outline thoughts. 
There is, perhaps, no subject connected with the policy of 
the world fraught with so much interest. An observance 
of these few hints, with a little elaboration, in a single gen- 
eration or two, will forestall and prevent nine-tenths, and 
then all, the family and national broils, lawsuits, wars, 
crimes, private and public. You would empty the prisons, 
the alms-houses, and the lunatic asylums. You would 
change the professions of nearly all the lawyers, doctors, 
and magistrates, and give us a world of Christian people. 

From these few hints the student of nature may pene- 
trate the subject more deeply, and extend his examinations 
further into its ramifications. The more he studies it the 
more importance he will attach to it. And then, casting 
his eye forward at the course of improvement to which we 
are evidently tending, he can but see that we now live in 
its very early openings. Progress has begun. 



188 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

CONCERNING POPULAR VIEWS OF RELIGION. 

Looking at the manner in which religion is viewed popu- 
larly by the people of some of the best portions of the 
world, and keeping in view the promised and inevitable 
destiny of Christianity, one can but be struck forcibly 
with the little that has been done and the much remaining 
to be done in religious progress. And this can but throw 
light on the subject of inquiry — still further on — the com- 
parative newness of the world in these passing eras. 

To inquire into the popular view of religion opens up a 
field of inquiry large, cloudy, and interesting. But here 
we can take only a brief survey. 

There are in all the world probably one hundred thou- 
sand ministers and others who, in some tolerable degree, 
have made theology a study. They have studied the same 
Bible, and the authors they have read have drawn from the 
same text the principles they educe. And among these 
what a discordancy of views do we find of both the Scrip- 
tures and the religion they teach. 

It is true, however, that while theologians thus differ, the 
difference almost always relates to minor or unimportant and 
not to vital things; for, after all that is said on this subject, 
there is, it must be acknowledged, less difference among 
theologians about the theory and practice of religion, than 
with almost any other class of men about the theory and 
practice of their respective principles or calling. 

Still, there are stoutly contested questions about many 
things in religion, deemed of considerable moment by some 



CONCERNING POPULAR VIEWS OE RELIGION. 189 

and even vitally important by others. These differences re- 
late not indeed to the beginning, but to many points in the 
growth and practical use of Christianity. And this state 
of things, we are told, exists in a ripe, mature old age of 
the world! 

And now let us look at another class, next in order, 
among living Christians, which is one hundred times larger 
than the forementioned. These are the best informed gen- 
erally, and among the most pious and useful of Church 
members. Their views of religion are still more superficial 
and indecisive, though many of them are practically pious, 
and, as far as they go, have very correct impressions on 
the general subject. But they are by no means well in- 
formed. Of the true theory of Christianity they know but 
little, and the practical impression it makes on their lives 
and conduct is by no means great. 

The next class in order is composed of the more loose 
and uninformed portion of the Church, and including some 
others not communicants, but such as stand in close rela- 
tionship to the Church. This class is two or three times 
as large as the last-named, and exceeds it in all kinds of 
neglect of religion five or tenfold. Very few of them ever 
read the Bible carefully through. Scarcely one reads it 
habitually. As to studying it carefully, they never dream 
of such a thing. They are "Christians" after a very slov- 
enly fashion. They half-way keep the Sabbath for decency 
or hypocrisy's sake. They go to Church frequently, but 
for no particular reason that they know of. Their names, 
some of them, are, or were, on some Church register, be- 
cause they consented that it might be placed there. The 
rigid precepts of religion are unknown to them, because 
they care but little for them. They claim to be decent 
people, and so they generally are. They view religion at 
a distance and think it a most excellent thing. They con- 
tend that the Bible is very true, indeed, but what it is 



190 DIUTURNITY. 

that is true in it they have not had leisure to inform them- 
selves. This class forms two- thirds or three -fourths of the 
Church in this old, ripe, and finished age of mankind ! 

"We have now glanced hastily, but pretty correctly, at a 
very select few of the human family — those of very rare 
and peculiar advantages. They have inherited the accumu- 
lated wisdom of the past. They have had access to all 
that has been written, and nearly all that has been thought 
in the world heretofore. They include one man for every 
one hundred of the human family. And we see that they 
present any thing but a ripe Christian scholarship. 

And now what of the great mass of mankind? What of 
the religious views of the ninety-nine in every hundred 
of those who have had inferior opportunities and smaller 
religious advantages? They might be spoken of as one 
class, or, if we designed to be particular, they might be di- 
vided into several classes. Some few of the more intelligent 
have some lingering, latent regard for religion. Though as 
wicked as men can be, on the approach of death, or in times 
of great peril, they frequently want the rites, at least, of 
religion ministered to them. Though they may have lived 
all life-long in its midst, they are almost totally ignorant of 
it, and have habitually despised it. 

They view God and the world, and religion and the fu- 
ture, and life and death, as the ox and the ass view the 
things around them. They prefer the fortune of the brutes 
that perish. Their ambition is to look upon the light of 
the sun, and eat and drink through the day, and vegetate 
like a plant, and like a plant drop and die where they 
grow, and perish from the memory of earth — having done 
nothing, desired nothing, expected nothing. As for knowl- 
edge, a knowledge of God and of the world they live in, 
they could not afford to labor so much as to put forth a 
thought on such a subject. The capacity and willingness 
of God to bless and protect them is a thing they never 
dreamed of. To elevate a thought or venture an aspiration 



CONCERNING POPULAR VIEWS OF RELIGION. 191 

that would rise above the ground on which they tread, or 
claim superiority to a piece of wood, a yard of cloth, or a 
piece of paper four inches long, would be an impossibility 
quite beyond their conceptions. Among the masses, I will 
not say of mankind, but of the better half of the human 
family, who ever dares to think, except as the horse thinks, 
to choose between this and that pasturage? 

And is this the end of the creation of mind? The asso- 
ciate and companion of Grod? What a splendid failure! 

But the great mass of mankind, seven in ten, have almost 
no. views of religion at all. They are a living mass of cor- 
ruption and ignorance. They may or may not have a little 
whitewash of what is sometimes called civilization, but they 
live and die as much like the brute as seems practicable. 

With most men religion is something political, or matter 
of mere philosophic speculation, but of trivial importance 
among men of business or employment; and men of leisure 
are far above it. And in Christian countries hypocrisy 
hides the most offensive wickedness from the observation 
of ministers and religious men. This is especially the case 
with men who regard themselves as genteel. 

And is this the end and aim of Christianity? Is Chris- 
tianity in its present form, and as Grod is now, in this sys- 
tem, dispensing his grace, destined to accomplish no more 
than this? And is this system of recovery to end and some 
great wonder of miracles supersede it, and other means be 
set up in its stead for the accomplishment of the same end? 
No, that would be at least irrational and submissive of the 
principles which revelation does teach. 



192 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LYII. 

THE CONVENTIONAL LAWS OF SOCIETY AND THE RULES OF 
THE DECALOGUE CONTRASTED. 

Moral conduct forms a leading characteristic of man- 
kind, and all men acknowledge themselves subservient to 
the rules which opprove that which is right and punish for 
that which is wrong. But there are two different codes 
of laws, and it is by no means settled which one is binding 
The one is the unwritten law of society, and the other the 
written law of the Decalogue. The written laws of legisla- 
tures are a mixture of these two. Sometimes professing to 
follow the latter, they are, nevertheless, composed much of 
the former. 

The Decalogue is by no means, as many suppose, a mere 
arbitrary enactment of the Almighty — right because it is so 
enacted. On the contrary, it is strictly philosophical — made 
to conform to man's nature. It is made as it is because 
that is right; because any other rules would be wrong; 
would chafe and conflict with man's constitution. There 
are no new laws in the Sermon on the Mount. That won- 
derful discourse, of which we have a synopsis, is an exposi- 
tion and elaboration of the Decalogue. The things taught 
by the Savior are not true because he taught them; he 
taught them because they were true. 

The Decalogue is the only true standard of morals. Any 
thing different misrepresents nature and clogs the wheels of 
progress. And nature, truth, right must ultimately triumph, 
or the moral government of Cod, as he has introduced it 
into the world, is a failure. The mission of Jesus Christ, 



CONVENTIONAL LAWS OF SOCIETY, ETC. 193 

as lie is now conducting it, and not in some other way, 
must triumph in complete success. 

It is as natural for man to submit to rule — to be gov- 
erned — as it is for him to live. The great question is, What 
law does he submit to — the law of the Decalogue or the 
law of society around him? 

The latter is as imperative in its demands as the former, 
and its punishments are perhaps severe enough for all prac- 
tical purposes. But sometimes it punishes men for doing 
right and sometimes for doing wrong. Sometimes it agrees 
with the laws of God and sometimes it violates them. 
Moreover, it is extremely variable — one thing here and 
another there. Sometimes it punishes and sometimes it 
rewards falsehood; and so of all other crimes. 

Now, it is impossible for a healthful state of morals to 
exist until these conventional rules of society shall them- 
selves strictly conform to the Divine precepts. The prac- 
tical morality of the world, almost, must be formed anew. 
The fashion of thinking must be reformed. Courts of jus- 
tice are set up to make men act morally; but courts of jus- 
tice never produced many moral actions, much less did they 
ever produce moral men. 

Means are instituted and in progress calculated unmis- 
takably, even divinely, if we will but give them scope to 
operate in, to rectify this state of things perfectly. It may 
be said they move slowly. So does the sun move with 
most unbearable slowness to the apprehension of a child. 
And yet they move as rapidly as the nature of things will 
allow. The constitution of things is settled and agoing; 
and it will continue its legitimate functions until the mor- 
als of the Decalogue shall become the morals of the world. 
17 



194 DIUTURNITT. 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

AN INSIDE VIEW OF POPULAR HONESTY. 

It has been said, and said so often that the unthinking 
receive the doctrine favorably, that "honesty is the best 
policy." It is a most miserable doctrine. It may answer 
the purposes of an infidel who desires to know no better, 
but it is very degrading to a Christian. Policy is used to 
denote good management — a shrewd and wise forecast — look- 
ing to the best and most profitable ends in the future. 

And by this we understand that a uniform course of 
honest dealing will cause trust to be reposed in one by 
others; will, therefore, bring profitable business, increase 
one's trade, give him employment, and secure to him both 
public and private confidence. And it will also, the saying 
teaches, procure for one the good countenance and well- 
wishes of others, and produce in one's own breast peace and 
a quiet conscience. 

All this may be very true in itself, but it is merely the 
honesty of dishonesty. It is the honesty of the sharper 
and the infidel, of shrewdness and cupidity. It is a wise 
and calculating selfishness which excludes the Divine gov- 
ernment, repudiates all the moral precepts, and makes gain 
and self-aggrandizement the ruling passion. And it is the 
honesty of the wisest and best portions of the world gen- 
erally. 

But there is no doubt but this policy, well concealed and 
shrewdly carried out under a good-looking hypocrisy, is the 
best policy. It does produce the advantages claimed for it. 
It is a truth which ought to be known, but it is a misno- 
mer to call it honesty. Honesty does not consist in actions 



CONCERNING CIVILIZATION. 195 

but In depositions. Rectitude of intention, integrity of 
thought, unflinching perseverance in right-thinking are the 
characteristics of honesty. 

And yet but few of us have learned that honest conduct 
toward others is the best policy. A sharper who is not 
upright in his dealings is as much fool as knave; he is a 
mean trickster, without sense enough, to make dishonesty 
profitable. 

There is no honesty but that set forth in the Decalogue, 
and further explained in the Sermon on the Mount. The 
policy-calculating honesty is the hypocrisy of cupidity. 
The honesty of the Bible is the integrity of the soul in its 
faithful endeavors to do the will of Grod. Nothing is right 
but that which becomes so by its accordance with the will 
of Grod. That w \ch is not done because God's will requires 
or allows it, is si. filly and dishonestly done. None but a 
Christian can be honest. All other honesty is mere policy. 

And now compare the present condition of things in these 
respects with that which the presently working system of 
religion in the Bible evidently looks to, and we can not 
fail to draw a true and fair, though not exactly definite, 
view of the probable relative period of the world in which 
we find these things located. 



CHAPTER LIX. 

CONCERNING CIVILIZATION — ITS TESTIMONY AS TO THE PROG- 
RESS THE WORLD HAS MADE IN ITS NATURAL CAREER. 

Savage life is one of the strangest and most wonderful 
features of mankind. How came such a thing about? Who 
can account for it? In tracing back what we call the dif- 
ferent races of mankind in their physical history, we find, 



196 DIUTtTRNITY. 

or at least it is believed, that about three thousand years 
ago we may identify, as is most generally calculated, five 
general divisions of men — the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethi- 
opic, American, and Malayan. But of the early formation of 
these history informs us but very little. The Caucasian 
race, in its descending varieties, has a prominence in history 
far beyond all the others combined. Indeed, it is to be re- 
gretted that the physical history of man has occupied so 
little of the researches of science and philosophy. But 
may be the time has not come up, in the progress and his- 
tory of mankind, for this branch of knowledge to become 
properly and satisfactorily developed. 

But these several races no longer exist as they were once 
supposed or believed to exist. They have divided off, and 
mixed and intermixed into a great number of varieties. 
Perhaps no family, variety, or race of people who existed 
two thousand years ago are to be found distinctly existing 
upon the earth now. Some may suppose that the people 
called Jews are an exception to this remark, but they are 
not. (See Identity of Judaism and Christianity on this 
point.) 

But we have no such knowledge of the physical history 
of man as will enable us to penetrate into the facts of early 
savage life, or even give a reason for it. All that we know 
is that they have gone wild, or partially wild. They have 
failed to cultivate human manners, or acquire knowledge, or 
elevate either the mind or the heart. And, with some ex- 
ceptions in Europe, America, and a few other places in the 
world, this wild, uncultivated condition is the state of man- 
kind to-day. And very much of what is called civilization 
is only upon the surface, and has very little to do with the 
real character. 

Civilization is not only the proper normal state of man, 
but, in its highest sense, it must finally be the condition of 
the human family. Savage life is a mere incidental ex- 
ception, which, like other such like irregularities, must pass 



CONCERNING CIVILIZATION. 197 

away in the early stages of the world's life. We are tend- 
ing upward to adult life and to maturity. The means of 
progress are ordained, are here, are at work. And these 
are the means and this is the theater of human perfecta- 
bility. 

But still, all this is easily understood. A far greater 
difficulty is the question, What is civilization? Many sup- 
pose there is a distinct and well-known state of society 
called civilization, and a distinct and well-known state of 
society called savage life. The truth is, that what we call 
civilization is recognized and declared to be, in every age 
and in every country and district, the then presently existing 
state of society. Every country and every people to-day, and 
at all other times, recognizes and declares itself to be the 
standard of civilization. The truth plainly is, there is no 
standard. Civilization is not a positive but a mere relative 
thing. Each and every people is civilized, because it is 
more highly advanced and cultivated than some other. 
Each several people has its own standard, the world over 
and in all ages. 

Now where do we find civilization? And by what rule do 
we recognize it when we find it? The truth seems to be 
that the best states of society are but partially civilized. 
Are drunkards, gamblers, murderers, liars, Sabbath-break- 
ers, defrauders, swearers, and licentious prostitutes — are these 
the material which can compose any part of civilization? 
Have we, or have we ever had, a people who could truly 
and properly be called civilized? By what rule, by what 
standard are they so determined? 

Truly we are a new people. 



198 BIFTURNITY. 



CHAPTEK LX. 

CONCERNING HYPOCRISY AND INFERENCES TO BE DRAWN 
THEREFROM. 

Hypocrisy is a seeming or professing to be what we are 
not. It consists in assuming a character which we know 
we do not possess, and by which we intentionally impose 
upon others. Its essence lies in apt and artful immitation. 
It is pretending to be a Christian when we are not; it is 
pretending to be an infidel when we are not; it is pretend- 
ing to be moral and upright when we are not; it is pre- 
tending to have friendship for another when we have it not; 
it is the putting on a gloss of civility to cover our real lack 
of it. The hypocrite is a double person — one naturally and 
another artificially. The former he keeps secret, and the 
latter he exhibits for show and advantage. Hypocrisy seeks 
to make a reputation without a corresponding character. 

A mob is a most excellent thing to draw out the true 
character. Many years ago I had a most favorable oppor- 
tunity of witnessing an outbreak of this sort, and of care- 
fully noticing its rise and progress from its mildest open- 
ings to its wildest fury. I well knew many of the men 
engaged in it. It was a valuable -lesson. For the first 
time I saw the real character of men whom I thought I 
had known well for years. How little we know of each 
other! How little we know of ourselves ! Who of us have 
taken the pains to carefully examine the texture of the 
covering we wear when we appear before others, to see how 
much of the fiber of its warp or woof may be interlaced 
with hypocrisy? 

Addison says the worst and most dangerous form of 



CONCERNING HYPOCRISY. 199 

hypocrisy is that by which a man deceives himself. He 
makes himself believe he is a different kind of man from 
what he really is. And before Addison, Dryden sang, 

"None, none descends into himself to find 
The secret imperfections of his mind." 

And long before that, it was written, in higher and holier 
strain, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me 
from secret faults." 

The couplet of the English poet is either an important 
truth or an unpardonable slander. Is it possible ! Do we 
live in a world where it is not common for men to search 
carefully, habitually, and honestly into all the secret corners 
and unfrequented recesses of the soul, and discover there 
every latent, hidden feeling and principle of error, that it 
may be removed? If so, then we live in a crude, early, 
school-boy age, where mind is still pent up by passion, folly, 
and prejudice. 

"What an improved state of things we shall have when 
every man shall appear precisely as he is, and hypocrisy 
shall cease to exist among men. But one branch of morals 
can not improve faster than other surrounding branches, 
for they are much dependent upon each other. How long a 
time this will require no man can tell; but until the period 
does arrive, no man can say that the morning twilight of 
the world is past. We have to wait until that state of 
things shall fully prevail before the adult age of the world 
begin. 



200 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

CONCERNING THE PRACTICAL USE AND BENEFIT OF THE 
MORAL LAW. 

The law which was promulgated at Sinai is the funda- 
mental or constitutional law of mankind. It was expounded 
by the Prophets, and still more elaborated by the Savior 
and Apostles. It was not by any means first enacted by 
Christ, but was always the law. Its principles, not so well 
defined, were always binding on men, and is and always 
was naturally binding on such creatures as we are. This 
law is not mere legislation. Indeed, properly, it is not 
legislation at all, but is the natural result of the demands 
of infinite rectitude upon such persons as possess man's 
constitution. They do not attach the offense to the fact, 
but to the spirit. They do not establish it by external 
evidence, but by the testimony of the internal conscience. 
Gruilt is found in the quiescent passionateness of the soul, 
and not in the thousand passionate acts. It is the simple 
state of vindictiveness of the soul, and not in the thousand 
vindictive acts; in the state of mere wantonness, and not in 
the thousand impure acts ; and in the state of insincerity of 
the soul, not in the outward breaches of covenant. 

The tribunal where these charges are brought and tried 
is the secret chambers of the soul before the conscience, 
where nothing is admitted but the man and the Judge. 
These two alone, in silent counsel, must arbitrate the matter. 

The mere jurisconsult would object to this as an error in 
the science of right and wrong, upon the ground that you 
can not compel a discovery of the offense nor bring the of- 
fender to the bar; for as you can not open a window in 



CONCERNING MORAL LAW. 201 

the breast to reveal the lights and shadows of the mind, 
nor cause birds of the air nor morning zephyrs to testify 
to the secret works, you can not subject the supposed of- 
fender to such tests as would be satisfactory to justice. 
These laws, he will tell you, can not be appealed to; they 
can not be watched over by any police, nor executed by any 
known adequate power. 

All this is very true. The law before us can not be ad- 
ministered by an erring, fallible judge, who is himself de- 
pendent for a knowledge of facts upon the testimony of igno- 
rant beings like himself, which facts are always liable to be 
misstated, perverted, or left unknown. But when adminis- 
tered by an unerring Judge, the sublime purity of this law 
and its direct appeal to the conscience, and these alone, 
give it its ascendency and power, and make it to awaken 
in the soul the liveliest feelings, so that it becomes the parent 
of moral feeling and the patron of obedience. Human laws 
have in them no moral sanction whatever. They appeal to 
nothing but mere historic fact. 

But it may be said that this law is so extremely rigid, 
reaching back into the very fountains of intention, that it 
can not be kept by any fallen man; and, on the other hand, 
its extreme vestal purity and sanctions are quite unsuited to 
our nature. To this first objection, it may be replied that 
the law was not made for fallen creatures who could not 
keep it. Indeed, it is not strictly proper to say that it was 
made at all; that is, it is not the result of mere arbitrary 
legislation, but is rather, in its moral sanctions, a part of 
the very innate character of Jehovah himself. It belongs 
to and results from the very existence of G-odhead, and of 
moral and intellectual creatureship. Nothing was done in 
regard to it at Sinai but its more authoritative and formal 
publication. And if the law be unsuited to our nature, it 
is because man has perverted his original nature, and so 
carried himself away from the presence of those mercies and 
benefits which were designed to reach him through and by 



202 DIUTURNITT. 

means of this very law. And if the action of the Almighty 
had stopped here in the matter, the condition of man would 
be miserable indeed. 

Every ingredient and iota of the law is the very essence 
of good; for peace is sweet, and chastity is good, and for- 
giveness is kind, and truthfulness is the very bond of love 
and confidence. These ingredients, so essentially desirable 
in order to the welfare of mankind, form the very constitu- 
tion and essence of the Gospel. The law is the Gospel to 
the unfallen j but to the fallen the Gospel itself becomes the 
law. 

A law governing moral conduct which can not be broken, 
would certainly not be a law. And a law made with even 
ordinary human wisdom has suitable penalties annexed to 
its violation — penalties best suited to the interests of the 
subject. A convict may curse the law, and a culprit may 
reason against it, but the minister of justice will, neverthe- 
less, hold both to its sanctions. 

And so with the moral law of God. It is a constitution 
upon which all men may be justified before all created 
intelligences, or before them all he may be condemned. 
There it is. It is easily rejected, easily complied with. 
But received or ignored, there it is in all its beauty and 
strength. It is the embodiment of all wisdom, the perfec- 
tion of all goodness, the consummation of all excellence, 
the height of all justice, and the extent of all mercy. It 
is the perfection and completion of every thing that is 
noble, valuable, pure, great, or desirable. And its practical 
applicability is absolutely and universally coextensive with 
the race. 

And yet, with this law and this Lawgiver, with these 
sanctions and penalties so made and so supported, it is 
true this day that it has not been received by more than 
one in one hundred of the family for whose benefit it was 
ordained. They do not admire its purity nor fear its sanc- 
tions; they are neither grateful for Divine favors, nor 



CONCERNING MORAL LAW. 203 

afraid of judgment. The past has no" compunctions of con- 
science, nor the future any fearful presentiments. The pres- 
ent is enough. A little time and a few trifles fills their 
minds like the immensity of eternity. The favor of a few 
fools, and a little handful of the most stupid and groveling 
approbation, answers them well instead of the favor and 
good countenance of the Lord Jehovah. 

Now, can these things be accounted for? Men are not 
so blind they can not see, but are shrewd, calculating, and 
forereaching. Nor are they too deaf and stupid to appre- 
ciate their best interests; nor have they resigned them- 
selves to dark and dreary despair, deeming further efforts 
useless. The solution is this : The deep, deep corruption 
of human nature, the proneness to sin and moral evil, is so 
much greater than divines generally suppose, that it pro- 
duces a moral paralysis much like what is called mono- 
mania. This disease is not only contagious, in a very high 
degree, but is hereditary and all-pervading. Its removal in 
a few individual cases may not be so very difficult, but its 
eradication from the race requires time ; and as yet there 
has not been time for even the introduction of the remedial 
theory to over perhaps one-fourth of the human family. I 
would answer the question why the world has not been 
subdued to the rule of Christ as the physician would an- 
swer why the patient is not cured. It is because the proper 
remedies have not had time to operate. The child has not 
graduated in the university because he is but just now suf- 
ficiently grown in physical and intellectual stature to enable 
him to begin to go to school. I would answer the question 
now as I would have done four or five thousand years ago. 
Taking all the circumstances into the account, there has 
not been time. It is but a very few thousand years ago 
that the disease fixed its fangs in the human heart, and 
so but a very short time since the remedy began to be ap- 
plied. We are too impatient. We call a few hundred or 
a few thousand years a long time. Nay, six or seven thou- 



204 DIUTURNITY. 

sand years is but a little while. The Gospel of Christ — I 
mean this same Gospel we now have, working just as it is 
now working — for I know of no other, nor of any other 
mode of its working than this present mode — the Gospel as 
it is, and not some unknown Gospel, will digest this world 
in due time, or at least in some time, if men will but work 
it. Let every man labor and let us have patience. 



CHAPTER LXII. 

CONCERNING THE IRREGULARITY OF THE COURSE OF RELIG- 
IOUS PROGRESS. 

Outside the reason of the thing, our knowledge of the 
history of religion gives abundant evidence of the native 
power of Christianity to subdue this world to the rule of 
right, and bring mankind, in detail and in whole, under the 
control of Christian laws and Christian principles. And yet 
to us who live down here among these valleys, the progress 
of Christianity presents a most strange and singular his- 
tory. If' we could take our position out yonder, on some 
eminence suited to an observance of the world's outward 
moorings, and remain there long enough to mark its cycles 
of periodicity, and with a mind and capacity enabling us to 
extend our observations over large sections of God's super- 
intending providence, we would, no doubt, see regularity and 
order where we now see irregularity and seeming disorder. 

But we must be content to occupy this low and unfavora- 
ble position, and with these restricted and limited faculties 
to pick up a truth here and there and arrange them in the 
best order we can. If we can not see and understand like 
a seraph, we must be content to see and understand like men. 

By this it is not meant that our philosophy of religion 



CONCERNING RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. 205 

is wrong, for it is not. The things we learn, we learn ; and 
the things we know, we know. The school-boy knows the 
multiplication-table as well as the mathematician. Many 
of the most valuable things in religion we know as well as 
cherubim or seraphim, because we have learned them fresh 
from the mouth of G-od. But the things which we know" 
are rather in isolated or integral segments, with not much 
of scope and extensive connection and relationship. To see 
this connection and understand this relation requires greater 
mental capacity than we possess, or perhaps a different kind 
of mental vision. 

From this unfavorable point of observation, therefore, and 
with these somewhat beclouded glasses, let us look a few 
minutes at the apparently strange and erratic course which 
religion has taken. 

At the first G-od gave the world sufficient light and a 
sufficient rule by which he might return to his proper alle- 
giance. A few followed this light and observed the rule; 
and among them we witness some of the brightest and no- 
blest examples of faith and godliness that were ever seen 
beneath the sun. The Lord had respect unto Abel ; Enoch 
walked with God three hundred years; and Noah was a 
just man and perfect in his generations. 

But the religious system of these times proved a failure, 
and it was a most terrible failure. To get rid of the accu* 
mulation of evil which arose under it, the Lord, in his 
mercy, found it necessary to sweep mankind from the face 
of the earth with the very besom of destruction. 

And then G-od introduced a somewhat different mode of 
teaching the lessons of religion. The Patriarchal economy 
was set up. It made the great heads of families responsi- 
ble for the government of tribes and family groups. This 
had a first-rate beginning, and promised well for a time. 

" And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of 
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt- 
offerings on the altar." 



206 DltTTURNITY. 

This was sublime! Behold earth's grand monarch, the 
representative of an incoming race, engaged in acceptable 
worship before Grod. 

"And Grod blest Noah and his sons, and said unto them, 
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." 

What could engender higher hopes or hold out larger ex- 
pectations to the Christian philosopher, the patriot, and the 
philanthropist than this auspicious opening? What a grand 
moral and religious renovation! The world is prostrate 
before Jehovah in prayer ! and the Lord listened with satis- 
faction. The people increased and spread abroad over the 
earth to some little extent; but soon, alas! we see but little 
of the altar and hear little of the voice of prayer. Noah 
is dead and his example is forgotten; and in less than five 
centuries almost all the world has lapsed into corruption 
and forgetfulness of Grod. And this second dispensation 
failed. 

And now the Lord ordains a third system of religious 
teaching. Leaving the great mass of mankind with the 
same light and law and knowledge it has ever had, and with 
its Church or Churches and religious enterprises as they 
were, and about which we have only some clear intimations 
in Scripture, he determines to establish a special nucleus 
with some additional instructions. In this family the Lord 
will teach and rivet the elementary principles of religion. 
And so, engrafting one lesson upon another ; conducting 
them by one series of precepts after another, he will create 
a religious nationality, and from this central point religion 
will radiate. 

And so he began this mode of instruction with one single 
individual person. What special preternatural instructions 
were given to Abraham we do not know, and why the 
religious nationality did not spring directly out from his 
family we are not informed. It sprang out from his grand- 
son, Jacob. 

The Divine intercourse with and leadership of this family 



CONCERNING RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. 207 

and nation are wonderful and intensely interesting. The 
Almighty was with them most marvelously, but not indeed 
for their sakes, as some theologians seem to teach, but for 
the sake of the world. If he had not began with Abraham, 
he would have begun with some other man with some other 
name. And the Lord led them strangely on through a 
wonderful history. 

But in its very early stages we are called upon to witness 
a large amount of idolatry and other forms of irreligion. 
How popular this irreligion was we are not informed. But 
there were among them many of the noblest specimens of 
true Christianity. 

At the time of Christ a very large portion of the Church 
openly apostatized from the religion of the Church, and set 
up a new religion not before known in the world, which 
false and wholly new religion is stoutly persisted in by 
those apostates from true Christian Judaism to this day. 
That the people now and of late years known as Jews are 
regarded as the legitimate descendants or successors, either 
religiously or ecclesiastically, of the Palestinian Jews, is the 
most remarkable blunder to be found in ecclesiastical his- 
tory. Both the Church and the religion of modern Jews 
were seen first in the world in the time of the preaching of 
the Apostles. Neither existed before, in any proper sense 
in which words are used. 

It is hoped the reader may find it convenient to read the 
author's essay on " The Identity of Judaism and, Chris- 
tianity" in the more full elucidation of this point. 

After the life and death of the Savior the Church flour- 
ished greatly for a season, but in process of a short time it 
waned most alarmingly, so that for more than a thousand 
years it barely flickered in the socket. Recently, about 
three hundred years ago, it revived considerably, and now 
in the past and current centuries it presents some cheering 
signs of increase in some places. 

These are the early, beginning days of the Church. Bet- 



208 DIUTURNITY. 

ter things are in store for Christianity. A struggling, vac- 
illating Church is not a ripe, mature, finished Church. 
Christianity, like any other system, must have its begin- 
ning, its growth, and its consummation. " First the blade, 
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

CONCERNING THE REMARKABLE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 
OF THE GOSPEL. 

In the face of the greatest and most powerful obstacles, 
Christianity has generally marched steadily on. The very 
fires of persecution seemed to kindle afresh the flame of 
holy living and Grodly example. And the Church put on 
such a tone and character of high heroism as made chivalry 
look contemptible in its own eyes. During the lives of the 
apostles, and shortly afterward, the Church seemed destined 
soon to bear down all opposition. The emperor of nearly 
all the world was a Christian, and every thing betokened 
success. But alas for short-sighted philosophy and the 
wisdom of sages! 

But few centuries passed away until the camp-fires began 
to burn low and the altars to be forsaken. And now, for 
more than one thousand years — from the fifth to the fifteenth 
centuries — the very darkness of Egypt which could be felt, 
rested like a pall upon the best portions of the earth. The 
Church was a by -word and a disgrace to the Christian name, 
and ignorance and superstition and oppression, priestcraft, 
imbecility, and groveling degradation ruled the rulers of the 
world. 

A few pious men — for there have ever been a few in every 
age — were found only in the back, unfrequented neighbor- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OP THE GOSPEL. 209 

hoods, or lived and hunted in caves and forests and unfre- 
quented regions. In the course of the fifteenth century a 
gleam of light was occasionally seen, and the sixteen hun- 
dredth year after Christ opened with a brighter dawn, and 
letters and religion began to live again. 

And in all these shades and fluctuations the same religion 
precisely which God revealed to Adam and his sons, and 
which the Prophets and Apostles taught, has proved itself 
fully equal, in all conceivable circumstances, to the task of 
humbling the proud heart of man before his Maker, and 
of opening up before him the portals of a brighter and 
better world. It has proved itself exactly suited to his 
condition in all conceivable circumstances. 

It took hold of a degraded nation of serfs in Lower 
Egypt more than three thousand years ago, and its knowl- 
edge and practice elevated many of them, even thousands 
of thousands, to the highest relationship with Glod. It en- 
lightened a whole people, amidst surrounding superstition 
and ignorance, to a position of social morals and civil and 
religious citizenship, so that they looked down from a lofty 
position upon a surrounding world sunk very far below them 
in every thing valuable to man. 

And in the devious and oftentimes crooked and rebellious 
course of this same people, it gave to their prophets tongues 
of fire and a spirit of wisdom, by which they instructed 
kings, emperors, and sages, and opened up even the far dis- 
tant future to the admiring gaze of science and learning, 
and pointed out . some of the great thoroughfares of life 
long before this history began. 

And, in the second place, in Greece and Rome and Jeru- 
salem, it broke the bands of personal interests, and made 
men generous even to the selling of their lands and pour- 
ing the price thereof at the Apostles' feet. It laid low 
and leveled the dearly-cherished distinctions of rank, and 
bringing about associations and parity between the richest 
and poorest, the highest and lowest, so that they were all 
18 



210 DIUTURNITY. 

served at the same common table and supported out of the 
same common purse. The proud Corinthian, given to lux- 
ury and pleasure, was made to lay it aside for more en- 
during enjoyments. It humbled the pride of the Athenian, 
tamed the bold and martial spirit of the Roman, cured 
the cunning Asiatic of his artful and crooked ways, and 
imparted a spirit of fairness and honesty to the vainglorious 
Jew. From all these it loosed the fetters of idolatry and 
superstition, opened up new and better associations, and 
pointed them to a higher and better intelligence, until it 
finally overrun the nations, and seated itself in the high 
places of their hearts, their lives, and their laws. And in 
doing this it made sages and philosophers gaze upon its 
sublimity and moral grandeur in wonder and astonishment. 

And, in the third place, a little over three hundred years 
ago, it opened up and consummated the greatest reformation 
known in the history of mankind. It is a very superficial 
view, indeed, which regards the Reformation of the sixteenth 
century as a merely religious reform. For more than ten 
centuries the hearts and minds of men had been shackled 
by the cunning arts of priestcraft and petty ambition. Let- 
ters were dormant; arts, science, enterprise, industry— every 
thing was palsied but licentiousness and official arrogance 
and bigotry. And in not much more than the lifetime of a 
man these fetters were torn loose, and the prison-house of 
nations was once more thrown open. Germany, Holland, 
England, Scotland, and Scandinavia arose from the lethargy 
of deep sleep, and awoke to the rights and privileges of 
mankind. People wholly unused to piety and virtue became 
pious and virtuous, and letters and arts and industry put 
at once almost a new face upon the affairs of men. 

A German burgher braved the province of his emperor, 
and the nations stood around him while he bade them as- 
sert the rights of men and the privileges of Christians. 
Before this England and Scotland had no literature but the 
mumblings of popery; no art but the art of war; no lite- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF THE GOSPEL. 211 

rature but a few songs of love and chivalry; but little gov- 
ernment and less law. The Reformation made Britain a 
nation, and placed Europe in the position she now oc- 
cupies. 

So much real power, of any kind, as was exhibited in 
Europe, in the sixteenth century, by the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ in the Reformation, was never seen nor known aside 
from religion among men. The sole instrument was relig- 
ious, it is true, but its immediate results reached to the 
very center of every thing. There is not this day a govern- 
ment on earth worth having, nor a court, nor a legislature, 
nor an art nor science, nor scarcely a book, nor the enjoy- 
ment of a civil nor religious right, nor an education in the 
mind of man, that is not almost directly indebted to the 
Reformation set on foot by Luther for its existence. 

And, in the fourth place, the power of the Divine con- 
stitution to elevate, renovate, and perfect mankind, to make 
men great and good, is part and parcel of the constitution 
of nature ; and it is perfectly coincident with the condition 
of things. There is abundant evidence that all kinds and 
classes of men on the face of the earth may be successfully 
approached by the G-ospel in the Scriptures. He may be 
civilized, Christianized, and made a man by this simple 
means. 

I address men of mind, of honesty, and of information. 
I have not much hope, I confess, in speaking to self-suffi- 
cient bigots, whose literature is the fashionable magazines 
of entertainment, wit, and romance ; nor to ignorant pretend- 
ers in knowledge, who have read a few volumes of skepti- 
cism, of law, or medicine. I ask only for a man who has a 
mind, a heart, and some practical information. 

You may go to the rudest people on the face of the earth, 
or to those less or still less so, and you will find abundant 
evidence at the missionary stations, that the mere human 
animal has been transformed into a thinking and feeling 
man. And in the high places of power this religious in- 



212 DIUTURNITT. 

ftuence has met the most arrogant prejudices and the most 
stubborn bigotry; and it has reformed the palaces of kings, 
calmed the spirit of warriors, and enlightened the halls of 
legislation. 

The best and wisest men the world ever saw -were Chris- 
tians. Human rights — scarcely the commonest rights — never 
were enjoyed outside the influence of Christianity. Take 
away Christianity in its simplicity and power, and you may 
take away my mind from within me and the light of the 
sun from above me, for I know not then that I would have 
much use for either. 

This power of the Divine constitution is the largest, 
deepest power ever exerted among men. It has more force 
to-day than all the legislatures in Christendom; more than 
all the judges and courts of judicature ; more than the 
sword ; more than literature, or philosophy, or song. It is 
"the power of God" among the people. Its achievments 
are beyond all human instrumentality and its successes be- 
yond all human calculation. 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, and much more that 
might be said, the failures of this same constitution are 
oftentimes both strange and frequent. Its most formidable 
and promising undertakings are oftentimes marked, if not 
with apparent imbecility, at least with almost entire lack of 
success. Look at the most numerous class of any neighbor- 
hood right in the midst of the working enterprises of relig- 
ion. They are settled down into a brutelike contentment, 
with a little food and a little raiment. Unreasoning and 
unenlightened, they live like the animals, upon mere animal 
gratifications. They look upon the sun and the earth, and 
drudge out each weary day with the cattle a weary and 
profitless life. They drudge and toil, and lie down and re- 
fresh themselves for further drudgery and toil. Their 
recreation is to laugh at a fool's folly, and to quarrel about 
a straw, and toil on. They smatter a little literature, or 
turn a rhyme, or solve a problem, or wield a vainglorious 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OP THE GOSPEL. 213 

sword, or sell a yard of clotli, or mix a cathartic, or quote 
a sentence in law, and call that refinement and employment, 
and toil on through more years, untutored in truth, unfed 
from the high fountain of intelligence, wholly ignorant of 
the great salvation, and unsanctified by the Holy Grhost. 
And so they drudge on, alike ignorant of Grod and unac- 
quainted with man, his sphere, or his destiny until, at length, 
they settle down into the grave like a fool, without a Savior 
to soothe the farewell of life or light up a taper upon the 
dark pathway to the spirit land, and without a hope to 
beckon them to a higher clime than this. 

The Divine Gospel of the Son of Grod had a full and fair 
chance at them a hundred times in succession, and every 
time it glanced without impression, like a single ray of light 
upon an iceberg. 

Go to the people — most of them — in any part of Chris- 
tendom, and see what they are doing. They are plotting 
schemes of wealth or ambition, or idling out the day in 
laugh and dissipation ; or gravely debating about the shape 
of a pig or a cow; or at law, wrangling about dates or lines 
or landmarks; or belching forth falsehoods most industri- 
ously about a town election, or gulping down the well-known 
falsehoods and slanders of a morning newspaper; or toiling 
in a shop or field, simply to do such work as the five me- 
chanical powers have not been adjusted to do; or propagat- 
ing slander, or retailing gossip, adjusting a ribbon or the 
spots upon calico, as some other silly woman did ; or worse, 
if possible, than these things, plotting schemes of licen- 
tiousness, perhaps, among the titled grandees of society, or 
some of the thousand ways, by false speech or false ap- 
pearance of some kind, making others to esteem them to be 
quite different persons from what they really are. 

The business of life, its great end and object, is, with the 
masses, to consume food and propagate their species, and till 
the ground and manufacture the products thereof, and trans- 
port them from place to place and exchange them for money, 



214 DIUTURtflTY. 

and grow old and die. But few indeed even dream that they 
ever had any relationship with our Father in heaven, any 
alliance with a spirit world, or make any calculations of 
ever returning thereto. These little narrow scenes fill their 
hopes and span their highest aspirations. They comprise 
all the joy they want or need or claim. Their enjoyments 
of the great gifts of God to man are idle talk, vain parade 
about trifles, vulgar jests, or brutal excesses or savage sports. 
With no thirst for immortality, they have no anxiety about 
the future beyond to-morrow; no serious meditation about 
things believed and enjoyed by their superiors in learning 
and knowledge; no control over their animal nature beyond 
the mere conveniences of the hour or the compulsions of 
society. With no moral industry nor enterprise, they put 
forth no moral strength, push forward to no grandeur of at- 
tainment nor Godlike deeds, nor true heroism, nor everlast- 
ing renown. They belong to the soil on which they tread, 
and they tread it like a tread-mill, which knows neither 
change nor termination. 

Ask them about Grod, or the Divine constitution, or the 
religion of Christianity, which has wrought before their 
eyes all the great benefits and glorious results the world 
ever saw, or the interests of the great future, and either 
they are too busy to give you an answer, or they could not 
condescend to come down from their high estate to do so. 
The last ditty of comic music, or the latest coloring of a 
bit of silk, or the most recent ebullitions of some literary 
clown, or the last quotations of shares or goods, are mat- 
ters too gravely important to admit of a thought upon such 
dull matters as the Bible and its Author. 

These signal successes and failures are remarkable. Mul- 
tiplied millions of the best and most intelligent men the 
world ever produced have yielded to the behests of religion, 
and have by it been elevated very far above their former 
condition. And then there are others, in still greater num- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF THE GOSPEL. 2l5 

bers, whose opportunities have been quite as favorable, 
upon whom it has made not the slightest impression. 

And now how is this to be accounted for — this wonderful 
power and this great feebleness ? At one time nothing 
earthly can resist its momentum ; and, again, it has neither 
sling nor stone, nor the power of resistance. 

We have all seen these phenomena accounted for by re- 
ligious writers with the utmost care, and in the most, ap- 
parently, satisfactory manner. But, in my judgment, such 
arguments are no arguments at all. They shift the diffi- 
culty from one place to another, and leave it without an 
attempt at solution. 

I doubt the possibility of accounting for these things 
now, except in the same way it would have been done three 
or six thousand years ago. Christianity is young in the 
world. It has no feebleness nor elements of feebleness in 
itself. There has not been time to establish a religious 
idiosyncrasy for the race. Sixty or seventy, or, perhaps, a 
hundred centuries is not long enough. It is long enough 
to make a beginning, but not to make much progress. Re- 
ligion must become endemic and then epidemic. As yet it 
is only sporadic. 

These are its early beginnings. Give it time, and it will 
infuse its influences far and wide into the very blood and 
bones and moral make and mechanism of our being as a 
race. It must become constitutional. Give it a chance. 
Let it have scope and opportunity. Grive it sweep over 
cycles. Let it have room and play sufficiently Godlike and 
worldlike. 



216 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

CONCERNING CIVIL GOVERNMENT — WHETHER IT IS DESIGNED 
TO BE PERMANENT, AND WHAT ARE ITS FUNCTIONS AND 

USES. 

Religion and Government are the great twin aspects 
of life. The former is permanent and constitutional ; but 
whether "this is the case with the latter may be a difficult 
thing to answer. On this point I know of no knowledge 
we have derived, either from experience or otherwise. It 
would seem to belong not to a permanent, but to an incipi- 
ent or beginning age of the world, and this may be tho 
case. 

Patriotism, however beneficial it may be in other respects, 
is a great disadvantage to the philosopher and the student 
of nature, because it disables him from judging impartially 
among the various civil governments around him. It is 
difficult for a man to bring himself to believe that his gov- 
ernment is second or third-rate. 

But the wisest statesmen are as yet by no means agreed 
as to the proper ends and purposes of government ; and as 
to the legitimacy of its powers, the proper manner of ex- 
ercising them, the extent of civil jurisdiction, and many other 
things pertaining to its very framework, there is wide differ- 
ence among men considered the first statesmen of the age. 
Few subjects have received more attention, and yet few are 
less understood. 

The volumes and treatises which have been written on 
the subject since the days of Solon, the father of the re- 
pulican theory — six hundred years before Christ — have 
been almost immense; and yet it is strange the philosophy 



CONCERNING CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 217 

of civil government has been but very slightly touched. 
Most that has been written is merely political. 

A bird's-eye view would teach us that, old as the world 
is, it has almost no solid information or knowledge on this 
most important practical subject. As compared with the 
past, some improvement is certainly discernible; but as com- 
pared with the stark necessity of the thing, it is almost all 
confusion and disorder. The grinding heel of oppressive 
despotisms, the proud and overbearing exactions of mon- 
archies, the unjust and unequal rule of aristocracies, together 
with the profligate corruptions and criminalities of republics, 
give the clearest evidence that, almost without exception, 
the governments of the earth are not seeking the greatest 
good of the whole, but are striving after the benefits and 
aggrandizement of one man in a thousand. 

Patriotism flourishes closely upon the heels of a revolu- 
tion, but not generally elsewhere, save in the more quiet 
walks of retired life. Sometimes it wears the ermine and 
dispenses justice, and so'metimes, but not generally, is it 
found in the halls of legislation. Very seldom, indeed, is 
it seen in the strife and contention for office. Ambition is 
its great competitor, and the securing of popular rights its 
only reward. Upon the whole but very little improvement 
has been made in the science of human government. Mea 
are governed vastly too much for their natural constitution, 
and vastly too little for their habitudes and condition. 
Every government has ten times too many offices, and, at 
the same time, not the tenth part enough to keep all the 
public duties discharged. One-half the profits of all the 
labor of mankind goes to pay for governing them. Since 
the Lord drove the Babel builders from the plains of Shinar 
there has been some improvement in the theory of civil 
government, and a little in its practical uses. 

I wish I knew what a theocracy was, to see the civil re- 
lation between God and Israel from the Exodus to Saul 
the King. But this is wisely withheld from us. Civil 
19 



218 DIUTTJRNITY. 

government seems to be a sort of temporary expedient, or- 
dained and suffered by the Almighty for the restraints of 
bad men. This restraint is also for their own good, as well 
as the general good of others. It is a temporary expedient 
of the Gospel, a concomitant and instrument of the Divine 
constitution. 

Civil and religious liberty are the same. The usually 
marked difference is verbal, not essential. 

Political writers usually divide governments into three 
kinds — monarchial, aristocratic, and republican; but, in fact, 
all actual governments are mixtures, in various degrees of 
proportion, of all three. But more properly, perhaps, there 
are but two kinds. The one is where men, by a common con- 
sent, govern themselves; and the other where, by adventitious 
possession of power, they are governed by somebody else. 

In the former, by suitable but liberal restrictions, the 
masses, by simple creatureship, are their own electors, and 
choose their own legislature. The latter is where — no mat- 
ter how or why — one or more men possess a usurped power, 
and the masses are their subjects. 

The question who has the right to govern is well-nigh 
no question at all, for you could never agree as to what 
hind of right was meant ; and the question which govern- 
ment is a good one and which a bad is also merely no 
question at all, practically, because the worst one here is 
the best one there. In themselves they possess no moral 
quality. 

So far as legal rights are concerned, a popular govern- 
ment is the only one that is admissible. But there are 
other questions besides legal rights that must have atten- 
tion; for if these be permitted to enjoy the right which 
those are entitled to, the world would soon run into anarchy 
and confusion. There is a wise principle in nature which 
•some way places the reins of popular control in the hands 
of men of the strongest mind. 

All existing governments originated in usurpation and 



CONCERNING CIVIL GOVERNMEN. 219 

fraud; but it does not, therefore, follow that governments 
continue to be exercised either fraudulently or improperly. 
And also most of the rights to property, particularly real 
property, which exist, originated in fraud; but an attempt 
to cure it now could benefit no one, but would throw all 
society into confusion. 

Civil liberty is a thing greatly 'desired — much sought for, 
much talked of, but very ill understood. Writers differ 
greatly as to what civil liberty consists in, in the first place ; 
and, in the second, there is still greater diversity as to the 
best means by which it may be secured. 

One class of writers tell us that civil liberty consists in 
being governed by law — law regularly promulgated, well- 
known, and properly adjudicated. Another class tell us it 
means the exclusive right of the people who pay taxes to 
tax themselves by their chosen representatives. Again, it 
is the freedom and purity of the elective franchise. Again, 
it is the being governed by no laws except those to which 
we have actually assented. Again, it is the being governed 
by such laws as we tacitly assent to by voluntarily remain- 
ing in the country; and, again, it is the proper independ- 
ence of the judicial over the legislative and executive 
powers ; and, still again, it is the having a legislature chosen 
by ourselves — that is, by the male citizens over twenty-one 
years, with certain other prudential qualifications. 
; , Civil government is a science; but so little understood 
that very few, if any, of its axioms are established. 

The following conclusions, therefore, would seem to be 
unavoidable : 

First. That civil government is one of the great aspects 
of human life, in the present state of the world, necessary 
in the last degree to the well-being of mankind, and even 
the existence of human society. 

Secondly. So far in the history of the world, the theory 
of government, as you gather it from the first living states- 
men, or those who have lived back as far as any one may 



220 DIIJTTJRNITT. 

choose to go, is a medly of contradictions and absurdities. 
No outline even has ever been framed which was not de- 
rived in its very philosophy by contemporary statesmen of 
the highest repute. In the best portions of Europe and 
America, it would be difficult to find two statesmen, if they 
chanced to live a few hundred miles apart, to agree about 
almost any thing in extrinsic detail on the subject, much 
less to agree upon a civic theory. 

Thirdly. The actual governments of the world, though an 
improvement on preceding ones, are a jumble of extremes 
and confusion. There are no two alike, nor never were. 
No people, statesmen, nor rulers were ever satisfied with 
the government of any other people. Every government is 
highly objectionable in the eyes of all other people, and 
generally many of its own. No civil theory ever put in 
practice was generally assented to; nor was it ever gen- 
erally allowed that any given civil theory was ever put in 
practice at all and kept so for any considerable length of 
time. Hence, political contention and strife have always 
filled the world to overflowing. 

And hence, fourthly, the present crude, new beginning 
State of the world. It can not be that this is the civil con- 
dition intended by the Almighty for such a world as this. 
This race is naturally capable of doing tenfold — a hundred- 
fold better than this. And still, in this respect, too, we are 
improving. We ought to have improved more and faster, 
but our sinfulness is very great. And quite likely, also, the 
true theory of civil government is yet undiscovered. 



CONCERNING DOMESTIC SERVICE. 221 



CHAPTEE LXV. 

CONCERNING DOMESTIC SERVICE — ITS PHILOSOPHY AND COM- 
PENSATION. 

There are some social laws of life which have not, so far, 
ceased to exist in civilized society. Whether they are ab- 
solutely constitutional with the human race our experience 
in the world will not enable us to determine. I allude to 
the laws respecting service — where one person serves another 
by some tenure regulated by human laws. The general 
law — a law which human legislation can not repeal — is, that 
those who serve others in the kind of service here meant 
receive as compensation a bare support. This support is 
generally of the coarsest and cheapest kind. Sometimes it 
rises up to what would be called comfortable. Beyond this 
all is exception to the general rule. 

The tenures by which this service is owned and secured 
are various, and we will advert to most of them. But, first, 
in order to form a convenient base-line for our thoughts, 
we will mark down the extremest and most rigorous of these 
tenures. Mr. Webster defines slave as follows : 

"A person who is wholly subject to the will of another; 
one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and 
services are wholly under the control of another. In the 
early state of the world, and to this day, among some bar- 
barous nations, prisoners of war are considered and treated 
as slaves. The slaves of modern times are more generally 
purchased, like horses and oxen." — Dictionary, 1851. 

This language is intended of course to be* very exact, and 
to express the precise meaning. That such a relation as 
this still exists among men, in some parts of the world, is 



222 DIUTURNITY. 

not only deplorable, but gives most indubitable evidence of 
not only a low and very degraded condition of things, but 
of a very early, beginning state of the world. 

The principal tenures by which one man ownes the serv- 
ice or labor of another are the following : First. If I bargain 
with a man to work for me a day, he is, in that much of 
his life, my servant. His labor has become my property. 
In the ordinary transactions of life nothing is more common 
than for one man to own property in another ; but in this 
case the man is not "wholly" but only partially under my 
control. Neither is the labor "purchased, like horses and 
oxen." In such cases the flesh, blood, and bones, as so much 
substance, is purchased. It is a chattel. 

And here it ought to be noted, as we pass along, that 
laws against unnecessary cruelty to animals are by no means 
based upon any supposed right in the animal; for he has 
absolutely no right whatever, no more than a hammer or a 
piece of wood. The cruelty is prohibited because it out- 
rages public and private decency, decorum, and good morals. 
Blasphemy is unlawful, but not because it injures Grod — it 
injures society and creates a nuisance. 

Secondly. A father possesses a right of property in the 
labor of his children. If you deprive him of it you are 
liable in damages. And here, also, the child is not " wholly '■* 
under the control of the owner of the labor. And he may 
sell it, but not as he would sell a horse or an ox. 

Thirdly. Another tenure by which one man owns property 
in another is called apprenticeship. Here the parent or 
guardian sells the services of his son or ward for a term of 
years ; and, as in the other cases, the property thus owned 
is the services only, and which gives the master only par- 
tial but not entire control over the person and services of 
the apprentice, for the latter has legal rights not possessed 
by nor under tire control of the former. 

Fourth. Another tenure by which similar property is 
owned is by contract between the government and the pur- 



CONCERNING DOMESTIC SERVICE. 223 

chaser, without the consent of the person whose labor is 
thus alienated. This is in cases of general idleness, thrift- 
lessness, and indisposition to work for the support of one's 
self and family. This is commonly called vagrancy. But, 
as in the former cases, the control is not absolute — the sale 
is not the substance of the man, and so it is not slavery. 

Fifth. And again: the punishment of some crimes, or a 
part of it, is the confiscation of the labor of the criminal 
for a term of years, by which it becomes the property of 
the state, and is frequently sold by the state to third par- 
ties. Neither is this slavery, for the reasons above stated. 
The labor and not the flesh is the chattel property. 

And, sixthly, another tenure by which the labor of one 
man has been owned by another, and which, strictly speak- 
ing, falls short of slavery, is the case of African negroes 
in the United States. So much dispute and contention — I 
will not say argument — has been had in this country and 
in Europe over this subject, that I must beg the reader's 
indulgence in a few observations. 

Notice again the description of a slave. It is remarkable, 
indeed, that no part of that description applies to the par- 
ticular property now before us. It is not only different, but 
different in every respect and at every point. It is true that 
this tenure is called by the name of slavery, but that appel- 
lation, when applied to this species of property, is used 
strictly as a provincialism, and by no means according to 
its correct philology. In the South the word denotes the 
actual tenure by which the labor of the black man was 
owned, while in the North it denotes the absolute owner- 
ship of the " person and services" of the negro. Such an 
ownership of property was never recognized by law in any 
State of the United States, nor probably by the British 
Colonies. Many years ago, when New York, Boston, and 
Havana were the great slave markets of America, the negro 
was well-nigh a slave. But long since the laws of the 
Colonies, and more particularly those of the States, have 



224 DITTTURNITT. 

so modified Ms condition that lie has ceased to be a' slave, 
though no great change at any one time in these laws was 
sufficiently radical to cause a change in the popular name. 
The civil and political personality of the negro has always 
been recognized if not protected by law in all the States of 
the United States where such property has been recognized. 
He was not "wholly subject to the will of another." But 
this proves nothing whatever with regard to the social con- 
dition of individual negroes. How much rigor or cruelty 
they suffered or comforts they may have enjoyed, here or 
there, are quite different questions. 

The relation was a kind of civil government. But it is 
no more slavery than apprenticeship is slavery, though it 
might have far more rigor or cruelty attached to it. Some 
think that because a provision in the laws of South Caro- 
lina, for instance, denominates slave property a chattel, that, 
therefore, the substance or person of the negro is a chattel. 
The same argument would prove that in Louisiana, where 
the same property is declared to be real, that in that State 
he is stuck fast in the ground like a tree or a post. Neither 
is true, because neither refers to the flesh of the negro. 
They both refer to the property owned by the master, which 
is the labor, and declares that in the one case it shall be 
owned and transferred as chattel, and in the other as real 
property. 

Whether the difference, moral, physical, and social, be- 
tween the Saxon and African races ever furnished a suf- 
ficient reason for this kind of rare arbitrary government, 
where it has existed, is another question which I do not 
propose to discuss. 

I am endeavoring only to set a few ideas on their right 
legs, and leave statesmen and philanthropists to do the rest. 
Human suffering, privation, or oppression does not consist 
in the names of the civil regulations which give occasion for 
either. Whether the condition of this class of persons was 
properly named slavery is a question of no practical im- 



CONCERNING DOMESTIC SERVICE. 225 

portance. Some people go to the Scriptures to settle ques- 
tions of this sort. But they go where no information is 
to be had beyond the general precepts that we are to deal 
justly, love mercy, and not oppress the poor. Beyond 
these general rules there is certainly nothing in the Scrip- 
tures respecting the legal and social laws or relations of 
any body in this country. 

In the revised edition of Webster, for 1864, the defini- 
tion is very much changed, so far as verbiage is concerned. 
Thus slave is defined : "A person who is held in bondage 
to another." This definition depends entirely on the mean- 
ing given to the word bondage. It dilutes the meaning very 
much, and might make it apply to an apprentice, or va- 
grant, or convict, though all three of these tenures are 
certainly very different. But it is not etymology that the 
oppressed feel; it is the pinchings of hunger, the chill of 
nakedness, the pain of overworking, and the loss of freedom. 

In the seventh place, most of the menial drudgery of life 
is hired, as the term is generally used. The low and dis- 
agreeable offices of life belong to the low and the ignorant 
by law — a law far more potent than any ever written on 
paper and signed by civil officers. This labor belongs to a 
particular class, and the members of that class belong to it. 
Labor is honorable, but servile drudgery in sewers and low 
disagreeable offices, in mines, factories, etc., where millions 
of our fellow-men and women serve a wretched service at 
the beck and will of another, is neither honorable nor agree- 
able to intelligence and good breeding. Some writers tell 
us that this service is voluntary, in contradistinction to some 
other kinds which they term involuntary. But in so doing 
they tell us that which every body knows to be untrue. It 
is the lowest, most burdensome, and offensive service, gen- 
erally under a hard master, and the alternative is danger 
of immediate suffering, even to starvation and ruin. The 
actual law, in many millions of cases, is, that the subject 
ehall labor there under that master, and for a bare subsist- 



226 DIUTUENITY. 

ence, or suffer death by starvation or freezing, or both, or 
other physical punishment little short of it. 

To call that voluntary might not be' offensive, perhaps, to 
a very hypercritical logic, but it is to common sense. So 
it might be said a man is hung voluntarily because he had 
the opportunity to shoot himself and did not do so. In 
many millions of instances, in civilized Europe and America, 
and in the wealthiest portions, too, there is nothing vol- 
untary about it. Whatever technical terms may be used 
by writers, it is the direst compulsion. But still, though 
frequently more slavish and attended by more suffering, 
especially with the young, the decrepit, and inferior, than 
most of the cases herein before examined, it does not amount 
to slavery. 

Eighth. Another tenure of service where personal labor 
is alienated, and man owns property in man, is in naval and 
military life. A large portion of such naval and military 
life as the world has actually furnished us with in these 
passing ages, is the most servile, abject, and really slavish 
of any of the tenures we have heretofore looked at. And 
it is oftentimes attended with more suffering from hard- 
ships, cold, hunger, and terrible distresses from inattention' 
in wounds and sickness than the world witnesses elsewhere. 
In this country and in some portions of Europe we see only 
the sunny side of this question. And yet here it presents 
a sad picture of human life for the most part. If I had 
room here to expose to view a little of the inside of this 
question, to take it to pieces and look at it segment by 
segment for a little time, it would present a scene of grand 
and petty tyranny, overbearing oppression, want, suffering, 
and degradation approaching near enough to slavery to 
satisfy the most grinding and oppressive. 

Ninth. Next in the general order in which we are endeav- 
oring to pursue these several tenures of service by which 
one man owns property in another, we come to notice what 
in Europe is called a serf or vassal, and in the East Indies 



CONCERNING DOMESTIC SERVICE. 227 

and other places a cooly; and in France and French coun- 
tries they are, of late years, called peons. These terms mean 
nearly the same thing. Of these persons there are great 
numbers in many parts of the world. In English, Spanish, 
and French countries they are generally very nearly slaves. 
Sometimes they are bought and sold with the land they 
cultivate; sometimes they are nominally or really owned by 
governments, but more practically by government officers. 
Generally they are very nearly slaves. Their hire is nom- 
inally by the year, but really for life or while they are able 
to work; and the pay is uniformly such a subsistence as 
the master chooses to give. 

And, in the tenth and last place, we have slaves. The prop- 
erty in them does not attach to the labor, but to the body. 
They are "wholly under the control of another;" they are 
"wholly subject to the will of another;" and hence he is 
"bought and sold, like horses and oxen." Not the services, 
but the flesh of the man is the chattel property. 

But, after all, it is not legal tenures which divide pre- 
cisely between these and those degrees of rigor and slavish- 
ness in servitude. It is not in etymology that the grinding 
heel of oppression is felt; nor is it in the words service, 
hire, serf, or slave exclusively. It is in the penurious ex- 
action, the overbearing injustice, the deafness of the ear to 
mercy's cry, in the disposition to grind the last kernel of 
gain out of the laboring limbs of the servant. 

Still, these are the relations of life, and these are the 
services demanded and yielded among men. And can it be 
believed that these inequalities, this wide-spread injustice and 
social advantage of man over his fellow-man, was planned 
and arranged for by our infinitely wise and benevolent God? 
Can this be the mature state of human society? Is this 
the adult condition of things? This would be an impeach- 
ment of the divine perfections. 

There can never be a state of equality among men. This 
is forbidden absolutely by the constitution of man. Nor is 



228 DIUTURNITY. 

this necessary in order to such a state *of social enjoyment 
as must have entered into the Divine contemplations re- 
specting our race. The man of a lower order of mind, who 
performs the menial service for another, ought to be as free 
from the slavishness which now almost every-where attaches 
to it, as the master of a higher order, who compensates and 
protects him in it. 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

CONCERNING WAR AND TO WHAT COMPARATIVE PERIOD IN 
HUMAN PROGRESS IT NATURALLY BELONGS. 

Those who live in an earlier age of the world can have 
but very poor means of judging as to what would be looked 
for or be tolerable jn a later and more improved age. 

To stand off and look at war — men slaying each other 
by thousands — a sane man would say that that was wrong. 
And yet to fix the wrong specifically might not be so per- 
fectly easy. 

Some parts of the world are said to be civilized. Poorly 
and partially civilized, would be the reply of the philan- 
thropist and the philosopher. War is the higest evidence 
of barbarism that can be conceived of. It is the office of 
civilization to do the greatest amount of good to all. War, 
in its very nature and business, seeks to do the most possi- 
ble harm to all. "Civilized warfare" is a contradiction in 
terms. 

Suppose we had not previously heard of war, and for 
the first time were to see the preparations for wholesale de- 
struction of life and property. We would pronounce such 
nations savages and outlaws. Their attainments in science, 
and the wearing of broadcloth would not relieve them. 



CONCERNING WAR. 229 

And were we actually to see the strife, we would conclude 
that the flood-gates of wild iniquity had been opened, and 
that an army of devils had been let loose upon the world. 

The idea that a war may possibly do some good is a clear 
philosophical error. It may do harm to others, but it can 
possibly do no good to any one. War has ruined every 
nation that was ever ruined; and, directly or indirectly, 
has caused nine-tenths of the evil the world ever witnessed. 
By it the grave has been bountifully supplied, and the 
sluices of iniquity have been flooded to overflowing. Am- 
bitious men have rushed into its arena, chafing for ascend- 
ency and place, intoxicated with hope and dreaming wildly 
of fame. Some met death and the revealments of eternity 
and the loss of every thing valuable, and some were held to 
be fortunate in meeting a feeble, sickly, wilted thing, a sort 
of nondescript, less substantial than Jonah's gourd, called 
glory, or at least they think they have almost attained it; 
but not one man of them all has met the desires of his 
ambition or had his thirst in any degree satisfied. 

Such is war always in its direct results. And yet the 
world has not been free from war since man went to war 
with his God, save a very brief period after the creation 
and another after the flood, when national war was imprac- 
ticable. 

And is this the normal state of the world? Is this the 
moral elevation it is destined to attain? Is this the stretch 
of its natural capacity? The Scriptures state its character 
to be far, very far different. This high authority tells us 
that, though its present appearance is gloomy indeed, war 
shall infest this world only for a season. Its implements of 
blood and death shall be changed into implements of hus- 
bandry and usefulness. 

And indeed there are indications that the career of war is 
short, that it is destined to infest this world not much 
longer; but its end will come about from natural causes 
already in being. There are indications already visible of a 



230 DIUTURNITY. 

disposition among the most enlightened nations to resort to 
other modes of settling national disputes. And the arts and 
sciences are so rapidly advancing, that it is probable the day 
is not distant when war will promise utter destruction. 

And religion is having its influence, too. War can not 
continue. It must cease soon. It has not. one moral, social, 
legal, or prudential consideration to support it. It rests 
upon nothing, absolutely nothing, but bad morals, bad feel- 
ings,- and bad policy, and can therefore by possibility be sus- 
tained only in a rough, crude, immature, and merely begin- 
ning state of the world. 



CONCERNING NATURAL THEOLOGY. 

Natural theology is that branch of natural science 
which discovers some of the attributes and characteristics 
of the Creator, by examining the evidences of design in the 
works of creation. It may be very properly said that God 
has made two separate and distinct revelations of. himself to 
mankind. The first was made in the exhibition of the 
world itself, and in what I have herein denominated its 
furniture. 

This revelation ought to have been sufficient, and would 
have been if man had been true to his trust. But, alas ! he 
was not; and then, to save him from ruin, a further revela- 
tion from heaven became necessary. This last revelation 
was made in the form of language, and is merely additional 
to the first. The one is called natural and the other re- 
vealed religion. It is our duty to study both these revela- 
tions, and to read in both the wisdom and wonderful con- 
trivance of Jehovah respecting ourselves and the great and 
glorious world around us. 



CONCERNING NATURAL THEOLOGY. 231 

In noticing a few points on this extensive and very in- 
teresting subject, we will first mention the provision made 
for the preservation of both the globe and the furniture 
thereof, notwithstanding the existence of so many conflict- 
ing forces, any one of which, if the system were differently 
arranged, would probably or certainly, in the course of ages, 
derange its relations, and throw the whole into confusion. 

To these immensely extensive contrivances I have not 
room even to allude in outline; but will merely suggest at- 
tention to the relation of the earth to the planetary system, 
of which it forms a part. Here, if the student will pau^e, 
he will see a most grand and extensive contrivance in all 
the astronomical laws, every part and operation of which 
looks to preservation, far, far beyond the reach of human 
imagination. In this particular field of contrivance the 
wisdom of God evidently reaches forward into the immensity 
of duration. 

But for this wonderful contrivance we should soon have, 
in the language of Mr. Whewell, "years of unequal length 
and seasons of capricious temperature ; planets and moons 
of portentous size and aspect, glaring and disappearing at 
uncertain intervals; tides, like deluges, sweeping over whole 
continents, and, perhaps, the collision of two planets, and 
the consequent destruction of all organisation in both of 
them." 

But, instead of such casualties of a thousand kinds, we 
see every thing provided for by the most perfect and ex- 
tensive forecast. Every thing is in harmony. Nothing con- 
flicts, nothing acts injuriously upon any thing else, nothing 
grows old, so far as we can see, nothing wears out. Bodies 
may be changed as to place and form, but nothing is de- 
stroyed, nothing wasted. The abrasions and wearing of 
apparent waste are provided against by growth and repro- 
duction. 

And not only is the earth, with its furniture of immense 
coal-fields, ores, oils, etc., preserved from loss, but other laws 



232 DIUTURNITY. 

and other cooperating and counter-working agencies prevent 
them from being sunk far beneath the depths of the ocean, 
so that they are kept on or near the surface, within our 
reach and ready for use. 

Another lesson in this great science is learned in the 
immense variety seen in animal life. If all animals were 
alike, or nearly so, it would argue lesser limits to the scope 
of the Divine contrivance ; but as it is, every part of nature, 
large and small, is made to support animal life, so that con- 
sumption consumes nothing really, but, in one way or an- 
other, every thing is replaced where it was before. 

The entire system of nature looks to improvement. 
Every thing is co-working with every thing, not only to 
keep every thing in as good a condition as it is, but every 
thing looks forward, through all its laws, relations, and ap- 
pliances to indefinite improvement. 

And if we descend into the regions of geology, and read 
the unmistakable records of the past, we will find that all 
the changes that have taken place have been changes of im- 
provement. However gradual these changes may have been, 
they were preparations for a better condition of things, look- 
ing steadily to a further and further development of the 
great original plan of Almighty goodness and mercy. And 
it is still improving. 

We frequently hear of the world being so changed, by 
some sudden transformation, as to adapt it to the residence 
of sinless beings. This is a favorite idea with millennarian 
writers. Even Professor Hitchcock has fallen into this 
common blunder — a blunder which looks to me to be both 
unphilosophical and unintelligible. 

How could this world be better adapted to sinless beings 
than it now is? Who can imagine a constitutional change 
for the better? In what would such change or changes con- 
sist? If we are inquiring about beings of a different con- 
stitution from ourselves, then the inquiry is both fruitless 
and meaningless, so far as our perceptions or reasoning 



CONCERNING NATURAL THEOLOGY. 233 

powers are concerned. "We can neither inquire nor answer 
intelligibly, nor reason on the subject at all ; for we can 
have no idea of any other or different kind of existence 
than the sentient and intelligent existence we now sustain. 

We have the constitution we were originally created with, 
and we can reason only aboiit that constitution and a resi- 
dence adapted to its functions and uses. It can not be 
questioned that a race might be sinless with the constitu- 
tion we now have; and if this constitution is to continue, 
then a world different from this would be a disadvantage if 
not a ruin. 

Are any of our senses incompatible with sinlessness? Are 
any of our senses or faculties, functions or organs, adapted 
to sinning? Are any of the laws, or any part of the con- 
stitution of nature around us, unadapted to a state of sin- 
lessness ? If so, then nature is particeps criminis in the sins 
of men. 

No, it is not so. The world around us is a system of 
true natural theology, and it is in perfect harmony with the 
system of revealed theology we call Christianity. All that 
is necessary to a state of sinlessness, is that no one commit 
any sin. And still we may live here in this world with its 
present constitution and present adaptiveness. 

If the race were sinless, I can conceive of no better nor 
no other world for his use than this world as it is. Man 
would still want to eat, drink, sleep, live in houses, and 
walk and talk, and learn and associate with his fellows as 
he now does. And if you were to deprive the earth of one 
of its properties, or the water, the air ; the gases, or light, 
heat, or the changing seasons, the earth would then be 
lessened greatly, if not ruined for his use. 

So that when men talk about this world undergoing some 
mighty changes by fire or water, or something else, in order 
that it might be "adapted to the residence of sinless beings," 
they talk about that of which no man can reason nor form 
an idea. 



234 DIUTURNITT. 



CHAPTER LXV1II. 

CONCERNING THE MORALS OF CITIES AS TYPES OR MODELS 
OF THE WORLD. 

Civilization, refinement, and social excellence is uni- 
formly looked for in the cities. Cities govern and give 
tone to the surrounding towns and country; indeed, they 
govern the world. They lead in almost every thing. They 
are the seats of power — all kinds of power. If you wish 
to find kings, princes, emperors, governors, presidents, or 
senators you look to the cities. They are the seats of let- 
ters and universities, of law and legislation, of commerce 
and money, of science and literature. They are the front 
rank portions of life in respect to almost every thing. 

London is England; Paris is France; New York and New 
Orleans are America; and so of other countries. They 
are the representatives. And so, the Lord have mercy on 
the world! for these representatives of science, industry, 
and progress are the very sinks and hot-beds of crime and 
immorality of all kinds. We do not see that Sodom and 
its devoted confederates of the ancient plain were any more 
wicked in their day than are now some of the largest and 
best cities of the best parts of the world. But for our 
familiarity with these things, we should be startled with 
amazement at the enormity of criminality around us. 

For more than thirty years past I have been pretty 
familiar with the commerce of New York and New Orleans; 
and in its leading branches of trade I know the latter to 
be a system of fraud and overreaching, not only in its pri- 
vate and social, but in its public and semi-legal aspects. 
Fraud by custom has acquired the force of law. Public 



CONCERNING THE MORALS OF CITIES. 235 

sentiment sanctions it, and it is all right ; but, according to 
the common rules of morality, it is all wrong. I am famil- 
iar with these things and am careful what I write. 

Some respectable and truly worthy people reside in New 
Orleans, but more than nine-tenths of the city is a sink of 
corruption and abomination of almost every kind. 

In New York the business known by the general name 
of "stock-jobbing" is one of the very t largest branches of 
commerce of the world ; and if its corruptions could be 
fairly brought out and exposed to view, it would give a 
very dark picture of deception, overreaching, and fraud. 
Dishonesty is so very common that it is scarcely thought 
of. The persons engaged in the trade are a large class of 
the most wealthy and respectable people of the city. 

But the sluices of immorality run in the large channels 
of licentiousness and prostitution. It would require all the 
synonyms to express the true idea, and then it would be 
but faintly done. In this branch of infamy New York is 
excessively infamous. 

But the most deplorable state of morals to be found in 
this country, or perhaps in Europe, is in Washington City. 
Here the channels of crime run chiefly in official delinquency 
and licentiousness. Its "highly respectable" thieves and 
prostitutes are enormous. Licentiousness of the most aban- 
doned and shameless character, in official circles, is u.sed 
as a sort of political currency, almost openly, with which 
votes in the Houses of Congress, and patronage of the 
Government have been bought and sold so regularly and 
largely that it forms a leading branch in the barter and 
trade of the city. And these things are well known to 
those who visit Washington with their eyes open. 

A Congressional wag, with equal wit, aptness, and truth, 
in speaking of the morals of Washington, remarked that 
the stench arising from the putrid mass was so great that 
the man in the moon had to hold his nose as he sailed in 
his nightly voyage over that political Hinnom. 



236 DIUTURNITY. 

Paris is the boasted leader of Europe and America in 
licentiousness, and London is the acknowledged champion 
in many branches of lower and lesser criminality. And 
these are the outposts of the world, the front rank in im- 
provement and perfectibility! The Lord have mercy on 
us ! The world is not mature. It has not yet learned the 
rudiments of common behavior. It is scarcely weaned from 
the cradle, much less has it walked forth in the high con- 
sciousness of manhood. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

CONCERNING THE DARK AGES, AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER 
PERIODS, PARTICULARLY THE FUTURE. 

So far the world has progressed in all the habitudes of 
morals and civilization with much singularity. Of the ante- 
diluvian world we know but little. It must have had a 
history, such as it was; but it had no literature to convey 
it to our times. And this comprised one-third part of the 
chronology of mankind, and perhaps much more. It would 
seem strange, indeed, to suppose that the world should wind 
up its affairs and pass away with so large a portion of its 
history hid in obscurity; but the wonder of such a supposi- 
tion is greatly increased when we take into view that other 
dark and hidden period, commonly called the dark ages. 

And then there are other periods of lesser note, of a 
similar character, which sum up an aggregate of much more 
than half the world, in which its doings and relation to 
other periods is almost wholly shut out from the observa- 
tion of science, religion, and human progress. 

The dark ages continued more than a thousand years — 
more than half the entire post-messianic period. 



CONCERNING THE DARK AGES. 237 

The Western Empire fell to rise no more in the year of 
Christ 476, before the power of the northern barbarians, as 
they were called. And from this event, more than any 
other, is commonly reckoned the beginning of the dark 
ages. The human intellect and state of society generally 
had, however, been for some considerable time remarkably 
retrograde ; and this northern conquest was only one of the 
agencies which increased the general gloom. 

And civil and social darkness thickened, and moral, re- 
ligious, literary and scientific clouds rested upon the horizon, 
and rose until the whole sky became overcast, and night, 
almost solidly, rested upon the world for more than one- 
sixth part of its entire existence, from the creation of Adam 
to the present hour. 

The history of this long period, so far as we know any 
thing about it, is almost a continued series of catalogues of 
battles, intrigues, victories, strife, and assassinations among 
contending sovereigns ; and which is ever and anon inter- 
mingled with the basest and most perfidious transactions — 
with murders, treacheries, homicides of all kinds, and all 
manner of crimes. These scenes were common among all 
the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa; and the first dig- 
nitaries of the land, in and out of what was called Church, 
male and female, young and old, participated in them. 

"In the revolution of ten centuries," says Gribbon, "not 
a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote 
the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been 
added to the speculative systems of antiquity. Not a single 
composition of history, or philosophy, or literature has been 
saved from oblivion by the intrinsic beauties of style or 
sentiment, of original fancy or even successful imitation." 

The depression of the human mind during this long, 
long period was as wonderful as deplorable. From the fall 
of the Western Empire to the revival of letters in the six- 
teenth century, the whole world presented a most sad scene 
of ignorance, barbarism, cruelty, and misrule. Many writ- 



238 DIUTtTENITY. 

ings of antiquity which existed in the twelfth century are 
forever lost to the world. The literature of the Greeks 
had been almost all gathered together at Constantinople, 
and in the several great conflagrations nearly the whole of 
every library was reduced to ashes. 

The only national exception to the most deep and be- 
nighted darkness and superstitution of the middle portions 
of the dark ages, if indeed that could be called an excep- 
tion, was found in the Arabians. They then held a small 
portion of Europe, and this was by far the most enlightened 
part of it. Charlemagne and Alfred, two of the greatest 
and most powerful monarchs of those times, made great 
efforts in behalf of learning and the arts, but they were 
almost unavailing, and operated as mere tapers, making the 
darkness more visible. 

Christianity is more deeply interested in the upbuilding 
of knowledge and literature than any other human interest; 
but the spurious Christianity of those years of gloom was 
openly and most powerfully hostile to both,, and labored for 
the destruction of some of the noblest productions of the 
human mind which then existed. Temples of the heathens — - 
as they were probably very properly called — with the public 
libraries they contained, were every-where the objects of 
ecclesiastical vengeance and destruction. The best classics 
were "sinful books," and must be destroyed. And so while 
the libraries of Rome and Milan were put to the flames by 
" Christians," those of Constantinople shared a similar fate 
at the equally pious hands of the followers of Mahomet. 

Indeed, the Church, as it is generally called in history, 
in those ages, was for the most part any thing but a church. 
It was a sort of mongrel branch of the despotic power of 
the land, where superstition, corruption, and crime were in- 
vested with a kind of mystical and fanatical influence, by 
which custom, in those ages of ignorance, enabled shrewd 
and corrupt men to carry on their nefarious schemes of am- 
bition and aggrandizement. 



CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 239 

If you view the world in an extensively diuturnal sense, 
this little period of only about one thousand years is easily 
reconciled with reason and nature. It was but a speck. 
Chronologically, it was almost nothing, and is but an in- 
stance of slight unevenness in the progress of things. But 
upon the narrow supposition that the world's entire history 
is to be cramped to the limit of six or seven thousand years, 
it is unreasonable, unnatural, and derogatory to the Di- 
vine wisdom and forecast. 



CHAPTER LXX 



CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY — OF WHAT IS IT A 
HISTORY? 

Names do not change the character of things ; for by 
far the most part since the time of Christ, and especially 
from about the fifth to the sixteenth centuries, the "Church," 
as it is generally spoken of in history, was, in truth, no 
more of a Church than any political oligarchy that might 
assume the name; and the propriety may be very seriously 
doubted of using the honored name of "Church" in con- 
nection with the history of the organized successions of war, 
crime, and political irregularity which have existed contin- 
uously, in various parts of Europe and the East, during the 
greater portion of the time since the Christian era. 

It looks strange and inconsistent for a history, bearing 
the name of ecclesiastical, to stretch along over hundreds 
and hundreds of years, giving accounts of varied and almost 
unbroken social and political criminality, and with almost 
nothing in it corresponding to the character of a Church. 
For a period of almost one thousand two hundred years, 
you may open one of these histories almost at random, and 



240 DIUTURNITY. 

you will read almost nothing about a Church, nothing about 
Christianity, nothing about religious operations, but about 
political treachery, fraud, wars, and disorders. 

Here is a pretty fair sample: "The absurd and ground- 
less superstitions which deformed the practice of the Church 
were rather increased than reformed during this century* 
The progress of reason and truth was retarded among the 
Greeks and Orientals by their absurd admiration of what- 
ever bore the stamp of antiquity, by the indolence of their 
bishops, the stupidity of their clergy, and the calamities of 
the times." 

It might, it would seem, be not inaptly suggested whether 
Church is the proper word to use in connection with such 
history. We read of the basest treachery among "bishops," 
the grossest infidelity among "clergy;" of wars and con- 
quests and civil tyranny, routs, defeats, and victories ; of 
thefts and robberies, of murders and assassinations by 
wholesale and retail. We read chapter after chapter and 
century after century of such history as this, with indeed 
almost nothing relating properly to the affairs of a Church. 

We read of "the arch-pirate Rolla," whose robberies^ and 
devastations would disgrace ordinary pirates, that " he with 
his whole army embraced the Christian faith;" but whether 
he or his army embraced the religious faith may, I should 
think, be very reasonably doubted. We read the wildest 
and most romantic stories of "luxury and ignorance" among 
the popes and bishops; of one pope whose reign "was re- 
markable only for ambition and licentiousness;" of another 
who "was a scandalous example of iniquity and licentious- 
ness;" of another whose "adulterous commerce with that 
infamous woman" was not at all remarkable; and of another 
whose life " was as unhappy as his promotion had been 
scandalous." And again, " licentiousness and disorder, sedi- 
tions and assassinations, renewed their former sway, and 
diffused their horrors through that miserable city!" 

These quotations are made without scarcely turning a leaf 



CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 241 

over for a selection. A volume of such quotations could 
be easily made. And this, we are told, is Church history. I 
think it is not. It is a history of petty wars, confusion, mur- 
ders, incest, bloodshed, theft, treachery, debauchery, cruelty, 
and other crimes. It relates to lying, to cheating, to in- 
justice, and to all sorts of abominations. It is not Church 
history, but a history of " adultery, fornication, uncleanness, 
laciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emula- 
tions, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revelings, and such like," which, we are told, 
is a very different thing from church operations. Indeed, 
it is more properly a history of hell than of the Church. 

And, indeed, it is by some considered an oversight in 
such men as Mosheim, Milman, Gregory, Ruter, and others, 
to put such painfully and scandalously true histories into 
the hands of the young, with the strange and startling title 
of " Church History' 1 If there is no written history of the 
Church in any given period, why not say so? And when 
men write a history of hypocrisies and abominations, per- 
petrated under the falsely assumed name of Christianity 
and Church, why not distinguish it by an appropriate title? 

The Church existed, however, all through the dark ages, 
but its history will never be written. But for many cen- 
turies the Church was not seen in those civil cabals, juntos, 
and factions of which we read, but in the more obscure and 
out-of-the-way places. It is a misnomer to call a military 
bandit and bravo a bishop, or to denominate his crimes 
Church action. Offices which are " sold without shame to 
the highest bidder," are not offices in the Church of Christ. 

These histories show that the ignorant and illiterate as- 
sociations which assumed the name of Church had as little 
of the character of a Church about them as could be con- 
ceived. They were mere political governments and fre- 
quently of the most debased and infamous character. Con- 
cubinage and simony were the order of the day. A den of 
thieves is not a Church. Christianity was the perverted 
21 



242 DIUTURNITT. 

name of a great political party whicn stood for hundreds 
of years opposed to the followers of Mahomet. But the 
latter was far more church-like than the former. The 
Church, all this while, was in a different place and among 
other people. 

And this view might well be extended into our ordinary 
histories. Look at the past transactions of mankind, as 
written down in history. With a few rare exceptions here 
and there, the history of the world is a catalogue of crimi- 
nality. There have been more wars in the world than any 
thing else; more acts of injustice and wrong than of kind- 
ness and fair dealing. And is this all this system is designed 
for? Is this present a system of crime and cruelty, and 
only another to come out of this, in some mysterious way, 
to present some reasonable traits of character worthy of its 
being created? Is this system of nature an acknowledged 
failure? Is Jesus Christ inadequate to the task of com- 
pletely rectifying the moral difficulties the world has en- 
countered ? 

Now, if you attach the sublime and God-like idea of 
diuturnity to the cosmological system, all these things are 
easily reconciled. They are, on the comparative scale in 
which we view them, mere trivial irregularities — not in them- 
selves any less in their wrongs and abominations, but rela- 
tively of little or no more importance because they continued 
a thousand years than similar things, in our estimation 
lesser, because they spread over the space of a year or a 
month. The progress of the world is not absolutely smooth, 
but is marked with little instances of roughness and irregu- 
larity, and the things here adverted to are but some of 
these instances. 



CONCERNING MENTAL PROGRESS. 243 



CHAPTER LXXI. 

CONCERNING MENTAL PROGRESS — AN INQUIRY INTO THE AB- 
SOLUTE POWERS OF THE MENTAL CONSTITUTION. 

The natural capacity of the human mind is quite un- 
known. A brief experience has taught us a little ; but that 
any one man, much less men generally or uniformly, has 
gone out the full natural length of his intellectual chain, 
is a mere hasty conjecture, utterly unsupported by philo- 
sophic truth. 

The memory has much more to do with mental phenomena 
generally than many suppose. It not only records and pre- 
serves the impressions originally conveyed to the mind by 
perception, but it combines and prepares for use that power 
which mental philosophers call the association of ideas. 

Perception is performed instantaneously, and but for the 
memory these impressions would be gone as fast as they 
come; and so there could be no retention and use of the 
thoughts by combining several of them. From this store- 
house the moralist draws his arguments and his illustra- 
tions, the orator his examples, the logician his reasoning, 
the poet his imagination, and the philosopher his materials 
for the accuracy of his inferences, as well as his substantive 
truths and facts. 

Mental philosophers are not agreed as to what constitutes 
genius. The most common views are probably erroneous. 
We are told that it is a kind of inspiration or preternatural 
gift bestowed primarily and directly upon a few. And the 
other extreme is, that nature is equally and alike bountiful to 
all ; that all are born on an equality. The truth lies probably 
between these extremes. Every man has a degree of the 



244 DIUTURNXTY. 

elements of genius, but greatly varied according to his an- 
cestral endowments. And it depends upon the acuteness 
of the perception and the power of the memory whether 
they will or will not become eminent in genius. 

Any point of mental attainment, in any department of 
thought, tchich has ever been reached by any one the most 
rarely gifted, is evidence not only of particular genius in that 
individual, but that the race, as such, is by nature endowed 
to at least that extent. Natural endowments are not special 
and individual, but belong to the human constitution. They 
are conferred primarily upon the race. The development 
of these endowments, their being brought to the surface 
from their latent condition, in particular instances, de- 
pends upon a favorable confluence of many thousand cir- 
cumstances. These circumstances are found, some of them, 
in the life of the individual person; but by far the most 
of them in the ancestral line of his procreation, reaching 
back indefinitely. We have a common origin and a com- 
mon constitution ; and if one man has more of what we call 
talents for painting, for music, letters, mathematics, logic, 
etc., than another, it is the confluent result of many cir- 
cumstances favorable to such a development in his ancestry, 
and somewhat in his personal history. 

Creation is predicable rather of the race than of each in- 
dividual person separately considered. 

The only reason why all men of the same age are not at 
the same point in mental advancement is, because, first, ed- 
ucation in the person and in the ancestral line upward has, 
on the whole, been more favorable in one case than an- 
other; and, secondly, the physiological laws of descent 
and inheritance, of which we know but very little, have 
given to this, that, and the other child along the line more 
than an equal share of the mental property of particular 
kinds. One had more of this while another had more of 
that. But, certainly, any mental point which has ever been 
reached by any one person, is naturally attainable by all 



CONCERNING MENTAL PROGRESS. 245 

others; and if it be not actually reached, as is the case 
with nearly all of us, it is because of the lack, incidentally, 
of circumstances sufficiently favorable for the development. 

I have a valued friend, the Rev. Mr. Byrd, an old travel- 
ing preacher, who has been riding circuits about forty years. 
He is noted for very unusual aptness in finding the roads, 
almost every-where, in newly-settled regions. He knows all 
the little roads and foot-paths, where they cross, intersect, 
and lead, and is seldom mistaken. And Mr. Byrd is almost 
entirely blind. 

We often hear it said that the loss of one sense gives 
greater force and vigor to the others. This is a mistake. 
The loss of a sense or faculty can give nothing. The ab- 
sence of one spurs the looser on to a better cultivation of 
the others; but the power was there all the while, culti- 
vated or uncultivated. Blind persons often attain to a most 
wonderful dexterity in the use of the fingers in delicate and 
curiously-wrought handiwork. But this is nothing but the 
development of a faculty common to all. It might natur- 
ally, though it could not actually, be brought into use in 
every case. 

I was once riding a few miles with a blind man, driving 
his two-horse Jersey wagon. We had stopped at a house 
and the horses had been unharnessed. As we entered the 
wagon, and before the horses had made more than one or 
two steps, he said to me, "Stop, stop; just step out, if you 
please, and buckle Bob's breast-strap a little shorter; the 
boys have buckled it too long." I did so, and he explained 
that Bob would not hold back well with his breast-strap 
quite so long. I wanted to know how he made the dis- 
covery, and particularly how he discovered it so soon. He 
could hear the ring working at the end of the tongue, and 
the angle or line from his ear showed him that it was an 
inch or two lower than it should be! 

Now, I hold that his ear was not naturally endowed be- 
yond my own or that of other men; but its cultivation was 






246 DITTTURNITY. 

far superior. The surprising dexterity of some blind per- 
sons in curiously-wrought mechanism is nothing more than 
the favorable use or training of the muscles. The differ- 
ence between a skillful musician and one who can not play 
at all is perhaps owing to three things : first, the tendency 
to musicial harmony along the ancestral line upward be- 
come full and cropped out at this point; second, the har- 
mony of sounds was better cultivated; and, thirdly, the 
nerves of the hand, and, in wind instruments, of the mouth, 
were better cultivated. 

The intelligent reader is well aware that I could easily 
mention many instances of most wonderful development of 
some particular mental or mechanical power, such as music, 
mathematics, language, recollection, etc., which very far 
surpass ordinary human power. Some persons by reading 
a book can repeat it all from memory, and even repeat the 
words backward. I knew a man in Missouri whose general 
mental imbecility was very prominent, and yet his knowl- 
edge of the Scripture text was very far superior to that of 
any other man I ever knew; and also his ability to class, 
cluster, and combine these texts, as to Scripture doctrines, 
was wonderfully superior. Some of the best practical math- 
ematicians were. persons utterly illiterate and decidedly ig- 
norant. And the same may be said of music. And so we 
have had prodegies in sculpture, painting, mechanism, etc. 

But there was no special, personal, natural endowment 
in these cases. By this I mean that the constitution of 
man was, once for all, bestowed upon the race. But the 
particular individual inheritance of this common property 
depends upon thousands of incidental circumstances. Those 
rivulets which make up the natural estate run and drift in 
currents, here and there, seminally, in thousands of chan- 
nels of procreation. Oftentimes they are latent for long 
seasons, and then crop out here and there. Sometimes 
these instances of cropping out have a wonderful confluence 
of valuable currents. And this we call genius. 



CONCERNING MENTAL PROGRESS. 247 

But this inheritance from nature is not like so much 
property to be divided out among so many heirs, where 
the more is received by these the less there is left for those. 
It is not the property itself that is bestowed, but the means 
of getting rich. So that all, all, under sufficiently favorable 
circumstances, may get rich. And if rash, hasty, and in- 
considerate men will but let the world remain, give it a fair 
chance, and not hum it up, these early disadvantages will 
be overcome, one after another, and all will he rich; that 
is, rich in such property as this world possesses. This was 
and is the Divine plan. Moral and mental wealth will in- 
crease most wonderfully. 

No prodigy has ever reached a point in human progress 
or perfectability heyond the common powers bestowed upon 
the race; and whether any one has ever reached this ulti- 
mate line, or how far he has fallen short of it, are questions 
which experience alone can answer. The constitution pro- 
vides for and points forward to indefinite progress. Even 
now some have reached points considerably beyond those 
reached by our ancestors a few thousand years ago. Mental 
progress is the order of nature. 

And this mental power, though not ruined, is greatly m- 
jured by sin. And hence how slow and difficult its de- 
velopment! How the various departments — every one of 
them — lie latent, like gold and marble in the quarry, until 
brought out by accident or by labor and effort ! But these 
difficulties will disappear gradually, by little and little, with 
the cause which produced them. 



248 DITTTURNITT. 



CHAPTER LXXII. 

CONCERNING ANIMAL MAGNETISM — WHAT IS IT? 

In 1772 a professor of astronomy in Vienna, by the name 
of Maximilian Hell, conceived the idea of curing diseases 
by means of magnetism, and he communicated his views to a 
physician whose name was Frederic Anthony Mesmer. Dr. 
Mesmer caught the idea greedily, and cured, or thought he 
cured, several persons by this means, and he soon secured 
considerable attention. Hell claimed to be the inventor, 
and they disputed about it, Mesmer profiting by his perfidy. 
In 1778 Mesmer went to Paris, where he soon became some- 
what famous. In 1780 he published some books on the 
subject. He also brought the matter to the attention of 
the G-overnment, but being disappointed in securing patron- 
age in this way, he procured a select class of pupils, among 
whom were some of the first physicians of the nation, and 
his tuition fees soon yielded him a large fortune. 

In 1784 the French Government ordered an examination 
to be made into Mesmer's theory ; but Mesmer refused to 
appear before the commission. But one of his pupils ex- 
perimented before them. The report was unfavorable, and 
Mesmer and his theory became unpopular. Another French 
physician, by the name of Puyseger, having discovered what 
is called clairvoyance, which is deemed more properly ani- 
mal magnetism, the subject was brought more favorably to 
public notice by the popular and elegant work of Deluze, in 
1813, called "A Critical History of Animal Magnetism." 
And several other works favoring the subject soon followed, 
by some of the first men in France and Germany. In 1825 
its friends procured another official medical commission from 



CONCERNING ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 249 

the French Government on the subject. Their report was 
not made until 1831. The commission consisted of nine 
of the first men of science in France. This report was 
unanimously favorable, going lengthily into detail, and it 
produced a decided sensation among the learned throughout 
all Europe; and soon 'after this the subject began to be 
noticed in this country. 

In 1833 the French report was published in the United 
States, by J. C. Colquhoun, and soon after several other 
publications, by other authors, made their appearance ; and 
by lectures, magazines, and otherwise, the subject became 
popular in this country. In 1840 the celebrated works of 
the learned Reichenbac made their appearance; and they 
were soon followed by many others in both Europe and 
America. These publications were numerous, and embodied 
some of the first authorship of any age or country. And 
while many of these authors disagree in many details, they 
all substantially agree in affirming a deep and newly dis- 
covered property or principle in animal life, by which a 
powerful and most wonderful influence is or may be exerted 
by means hitherto unknown to science, and about which but 
slight discoveries are as yet made. 

Notwithstanding this, the medical profession generally re- 
pudiate the entire discoveries as no real discoveries, and 
treat the whole thing as unworthy of serious notice. The 
pulpit, too, has generally denounced it, especially the 
most intelligent and respectable portions thereof, as an in- 
fidel attempt to throw prophecy and miracle into ridicule, 
and to introduce demoniacal influence among the affairs 
of men; and those who befriend or practice it are re- 
garded as fraudulent impostors or their dupes. But I 
have not known that any philosophic or scientific reasons 
for these denunciations have been attempted. They are 
based solely on the well-known variance between these phe- 
nomena and our experience; and I do not know but that 
all these objections might be properly answered in the nier« 



250 DIUTURNITY. 

suggestion that human experience is not the measure of pos- 
sibility. 

It is objected that its facts are not accounted for, nor is 
a plausible theory in regard to it set up. But this objec- 
tion lies with exactly the same force against mineral mag- 
netism, telegraphing, vegetable growth, animal procreation, 
and all other natural phenomena which we see. 

Still, it is hard to believe all that is written of it, or even 
a moity, by such men as Dr. William B. Carpenter, Laplace, 
Agassiz, Hufland, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. Herbert Mayo, 
Prof. Edward Hitchcock, and many others distinguished for 
learning and science. Dr. Carpenter stands foremost in the 
list of authors on physiology, both in England and America; 
and he is noted for carefulness and safety in the utterance 
of his views. And yet the marvelous facts stated by these 
men, and by scores and even hundreds of other writers of 
known respectability, are calculated to baffle the soberest 
judgment and cause the most credulous to hesitate. Nor 
are we by any means dependent on authors for these wonder- 
ful facts and performances. In many parts of the country, 
on both sides of the Atlantic, large numbers of people have 
the evidence of their senses in attestation. Indeed, many 
of them have become commonplace. 

The student of natural science will meet with no subject 
more puzzling nor difficult to dispose of than this. He will 
fiud it difficult to embrace it as a science and fix its axioms, 
and equally difficult to discard it as unworthy of his labo- 
rious pursuit and investigation. Its palpable and unques- 
tionable facts will meet him at the threshold and demand 
attention. These facts will meet him not in a few isolated 
forms, like necromancy or conjuration, but in scores of forms, 
and in the entire absence of any high claims or preternatu- 
ral pretensions. 

It is certaiu that in the present age of the world, mes- 
merism is not known as a science. It is a mere practice 
with such and such ascertained results; but its axioms are 



CONCERNING ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 251 

not established, its numerous truths are not classified, nor 
does its phenomena accord and harmonize wholly, nor even 
generally, with any natural laws well known to mankind. 
For these reasons, and also because of its notorious and even 
wild antagonism with human experience, it has been scoifed 
and ridiculed by divines and others as a morbid spiritualism, 
and, as before remarked, as setting up a sort of satanic* op- 
position to the truths of religion. 

As to the first charge, I am not aware that mesmerism, 
in any of its stages or degrees, affirms or allies itself with 
what is either properly or popularly called spiritualism, nor 
is this claimed for it by its most respectable advocates. 
While many theories have been attempted in explanation 
of its results, its soberest advocates content themselves with 
independent expositions of its demonstrable facts and varied 
phenomena. And as to the argument put forth by Chris- 
tians in defense of religion, it may be sufficient to remind 
them that this, is precisely the argument by which Hume 
and his followers prove the impossibility of miracles ; namely, 
that it contradicts human experience. But it is not true, 
as mere matter of logical fact, that either mesmerism or 
miracles contradict human experience ; they both vary from 
such experience as we have had. And this is no more 
than may be said of thousands of new facts which arise 
from day to day. When the properties of the magnetic 
needle were first discovered, they varied widely from all 
human experience, though they did not contradict it. Facts 
are provable by testimony, not by the past records of ex- 
perience. The argument is a fallacy by whomsoever or for 
whatsoever purpose it may be used. 

Whether a mesmerized person can read a folded letter yet 
in the post-office, or as the writer writes it, many miles dis- 
tant, or not, is a question to be proved by testimony, and in 
no other way. And this is the way to prove whether a needle 
can point a vessel safely across the ocean ; and it is the way, 
and the only way, to prove the truth of faGts said to be 



252 DIUTURNITY. 

miraculous. Human experience is not the measure of possi- 
bility. Telegraphing may be true, though but a very few 
years since it varied widely from all experience. I know 
not that we have a philosophic digest of the code of nature, 
or that we are familiar with endless causation; and hence I 
know not but that the mariner's needle, telegraphing, mes- 
merism, and miracles may all be true. Their truth depends 
upon testimony and not upon experience. 

Nor do I see, as some divines seem to, that in believing 
either of these things it is necessary to violate any of na- 
ture's laws. I believe that miracles rather belong to a class 
or classes of laws above and beyond those which pertain 
regularly and ordinarily to this present mode of our ex- 
istence; and that mesmerism, supposing its facts to be true, 
and telegraphing, animal procreation, vegetable growth, the 
vitality of the blood, instinct, and many thousands of other 
phenomena of which we have some knowledge, belong to 
laws which we, as yet, are not perfectly familiar with in 
our infantile course of intellectual progress. 

We are a young race, and have made some progress in 
the primer of knowledge. Industry and perseverance will 
place us in the freshman and sophomore classes in due time; 
and the world will graduate in due season, or at least in 
some season. 

Wait and let true philosophy determine what are the 
true and genuine principles of phrenology and mesmerism, 
and then we can judge of their bearings upon religion. I 
have no fear of science, nor of truth in any shape. The 
history of other sciences show us that we need have no 
fears of any collision. Let the whole subject be brought 
to light. 



CONCERNING ASTRONOMY. 253 



CHAPTER LXXIII. 

CONCERNING ASTRONOMY — THE NEWNESS OP THE SCIENCE 
AND INFERENCES DEDUCIBLE THEREFROM. 

Some of the important sciences have but just begun to 
attract attention. Astronomy is but very little older now, 
either in years or in progress, than it was when the earth 
was a stationary plain and the sun the size of a clever 
mountain and revolved round it every day. The telescope, 
we must remember, is but two hundred years old. Coper- 
nicus, the astronomical father of the sidereal heavens, lived 
but about three hundred years gone by. For about six 
thousand years the earth rested upon a great turtle, and 
the little stars came out at night to play around it. At 
that very recent period the restless Prussian, concluding 
perhaps that the turtle was tired, undertook to set the earth 
to revolving round the sun ; but he succeeded no further 
than to write a treatise on the subject, which for many 
years he dared not to publish. In his old and declining 
years he did publish it, but died before it was circulated, 
and so he escaped the punishment of so great a crime. 

And so the earth remained where it was another hundred 
years, until Grallileo determined that he would make it move ; 
but this high and unauthorized interference with the works 
of Grod subjected him to such severe punishments that he 
was compelled to stop it several times before he died. But 
Kelper and Newton, not many years afterward, determined 
that the earth should move and revolve round the sun. 
The former made the "laws" by which it should do so, and 
the latter persistently put them into execution; and it has 



254 DIUTURNITY. 

been so revolving for a very little over one hundred and 
fifty years. 

Astronomy is, therefore, hut a thing of yesterday. Most 
that is known of it has been ascertained within a very few 
years past; much of it within ten or fifteen years. A 
treatise on astronomy goes out of date almost as fast as an 
almanac. The asteroids, as a class of recently discovered 
planets are called, have all been discovered within the cur- 
rent century, and most of them within the last ten or twelve 
years. A correct and easy mode of measuring the distance 
from the sun to the fixed stars is also a discovery of the 
last twenty years. Saturn's ring was discovered by Grallileo, 
about two hundred and fifty years ago, and was considered 
a solid body, until within twenty-five or thirty years past it 
has been demonstrated that this can not be possible, and it 
was then clearly ascertained to be a fluid. 

On the American continent the science of astronomy is 
in its very infancy. From this point of observation, astro- 
nomical researches may be said to be but just begun, about 
the year 1843. At this time a large comet made its appear- 
ance in this hemisphere, which directed attention to the 
subject. New methods of observation are being invented 
almost every year; and it is quite common for astronomers 
to inform each other, from month to month, of some new 
invention or discovery of great value and simplicity. The 
telegraph has added greatly to the facilities of making these 
researches and observations. 

And is it too much to presume that this great science 
has thus sprung into an infantile existence in the "latter 
days," just at the close of man's earthly career? Of what 
use are its sublime and astounding truths? This looks un- 
reasonable. It is not in good keeping with the works and 
ways of G-od. 

And to suppose that the pursuit and appropriation of 
astronomical and all other cosmological knowledge to the 
farthest point of scientific practicability is not both designed 



CONCERNING ASTRONOMY. 255 

and intended for the religions as well as the general ad- 
vantage- of mankind, is to take a very superficial view of the 
Great God and his wonderful providence. All cosmological 
truth within our reach is certainly intended for our use. It 
is calculated to make plain much biblical truth and religious 
doctrine. Astronomy is well calculated to dilate the human 
mind and give it greatly extended views of the immensity 
of God, his power, and his work. 

Astronomy is already beginning to throw some light upon 
the diuturnal character of the globe. Until within the last 
few years, it was generally considered that this world abso- 
lutely began to exist a few years ago, at the Adamic crea- 
tion; but geology has demonstrated that the earth is of 
almost infinitely greater age, and has been molding and 
forming itself through many forms and stages in many very 
long periods. And astronomy is beginning to indicate at 
least a high probability that other heavenly bodies are pass- 
ing through some of those unfinished formation stages. 
The moon is nearest to us of these orbs ; and some recent 
views of it seem to indicate that its surface is in a kind of 
volcanic or eruptive state. And also what is called nebulas, 
or clusters of innumerable bodies, when placed under the 
power of the strongest telescopes, give decided support to 
the opinion that they are material for future globes and 
systems in a formation state, more or less chaotic, and which 
in process of ages will become formed in more completeness 
and ready for use. 

And who will say that science may not yet familiarize us 
with all this and much more? Nor is it unreasonable to 
suppose that the planetary world may yet become much 
better known to us, so that the human mind may extend 
and dilate in its grasp of the greatness and glory of the 
works of God; so that what is now known of these things 
will appear quite liliputian. 

Looking at the subject of cosmology, then, in the light 
of astronomy, with its transcendently sublime and magnifi- 



256 DIUTURNITY. 

cent array of facts, its bewildering magnitudes, on the one 
hand, even so far as science has conducted us, and on the 
other, the world we inhabit as an integral portion of this 
sidereal immensity, and then supposing the conditions and 
history of the latter to be wrapped up within the compass 
of sixty or seventy centuries, there appears an obvious and 
most damaging disproportion and unfitness which makes 
the great providence of the Grreat God to dwindle into 
deformity. 



CHAPTER LXXIV. 

CONCERNING TIME AND SPACE AND THE DEFICIENCY OF HU- 
MAN KNOWLEDGE RESPECTING THEM. 

Mr. Locke says that time is "that mode of duration 
which is formed in the mind by its own power of observ- 
ing and measuring passing objects." This is perhaps as 
good a definition as we need expect. But suppose there be 
no "passing objects" to mark events in duration, how then 
are periods to be formed? We have some idea of time when 
connected with successive events, such as we mark in this 
present mode of existence; but if we were removed to some 
other mode of existence, where there are probably no such 
things as we now call events, what idea can we then form of 
time? 

There is, I think it is clear, no evidence that this mode 
of separating events which we call time is any thing more 
than a mode of existence. 

The young sciences of astronomy and geology are re- 
cently throwing much light on what we call time and space. 
Whether they can establish a relation between the unknown 
and the infinite, as is argued by Isaac Taylor, might be 



CONCERNING TIME AND SPACE. 257 

questioned, without questioning the fact that "the modern 
mind has incalculably extended its view over the illimitable 
fields of duration." 

"When we look out upon space, with some correct intima- 
tion as to the distance of the stars, we conclude that we see 
many millions of miles, and we presume that the outskirts 
of creation are not a great way beyond this. And when we 
apply the telescope of fifty years ago, its lens carries the 
eye forward away beyond those regions, and we extend the 
outskirts of the universe accordingly. And when we apply 
the recent and more powerful glasses, we discover that 
those outer regions are comparatively very near to us. "We 
see worlds away in the remoter distance so immeasurably far 
that the near telescopic stars appear to lie in our vicinity. 
And so, again, we extend the outskirts of creation. 

And if you could extend the process of measurement by 
multiplying their cubes, you are making no progress what- 
ever, so far as we can know, toward infinity. We are only 
measuring distances between objects. If asked how I know 
this, I can only reply that infinity is not divisible. The ef- 
forts of some to extend time into eternity by climactory 
processes are very far from being scientific. Some call 
upon us to suppose the solar system reduced to a fine sand, 
one grain of which is to be removed in a thousand years, 
and then to imagine the great length of time it would re- 
quire to remove the whole. 

Such speculations are not reasoning. They only measure 
periods between events, and neither long periods nor short 
ones serve any purpose whatever in illustrating the infinite. 
No man can conceive that long periods have any nearer re- 
lation to infinity of duration than short ones. 

Mr. R. W r atson — Die. art. Eternity — says: "Duration, as 
applied to God, is no more than an extension of the idea as 
applied to ourselves." This seems to me illogical. Dura- 
tion, like any other thing or principle, is what it is, in and 
of itself, irrespective of any application of it. Applying it 
22 



258 DIUTURNITT. 

to either this or that can neither fix nor change its char- 
acter. Time is measured or measurable periods. Eternity 
is not measurable, or else it is not eternity. Moreover, we 
can not apply duration to God at all. The attempt would 
run us into the absurdity of supposing that God grows old. 

And just so of space. In the absence of objects we have 
no conception of space, for the only idea we have of space 
is the intervening distance between objects. Of space itself 
independently and absolutely we have no idea. And so we 
are told that "our days on the earth are as a shadow and 
there is none abiding." But in what respect the days of 
man are like the shadow cast upon the dial by the gnomon 
we can not understand. "We only know that "we are but 
of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon the 
earth are a shadow." 

Without attempting to press our inquiries further, as we 
roam along the border of this subject — for we can not at- 
tempt to go beyond the border — we may sum up our in- 
quiries, perhaps, as follows: 

"We see that our sensible impressions of either time or 
duration are most probably very erroneous and quite unre- 
liable. Periodicity seems to be regular when compared 
with events; but in and of itself we know nothing of it. 
"Respecting the final course of time and the history of this 
world's close, we can not form even a conjecture from con- 
siderations respecting its chronology. It is like the rea- 
soning of a blind man about colors. 

The close of the world's history can be predicated only of 
its progress toward the completion of its natural undertakings. 
What has the world done is a much more important ques- 
tion than how long has it lived. What was and is its 
evident plan, design, course, programme, as we may learn 
from its nature and such revelation as we have respecting 
it? What were the Divine purposes respecting it? And 
how much of these things have been accomplished ? 



CONCERNING LIGHT AND VISION. 259 



CHAPTER LXXV. 

CONCERNING LIGHT AND VISION— THE LITTLE WE KNOW IN 
COMPARISON WITH WHAT IS CERTAINLY OR PROBABLY 
WITHIN OUR REACH. 

It is not at all probable that there was such a verbal 
utterance as we read of in that wonderful expression, "Let 
there be light." That was the law — the mind of God — and 
light and vision met each other. But what light is, is as yet 
unknown to science. It is an unknown agent or cause of 
visibility or illumination of natural bodies. It is a prop- 
erty or quality of matter, but is not probably an indepen- 
dent or separate substance or thing; or perhaps it is a con- 
dition of bodies while being acted on by its cause. 

Light is not heat, but they are nearly related. Solid sub- 
stances emit light when heated to a little less than one 
thousand degrees. Very little is known of phosphorescence, 
and still less of florescence, though much advancement, has 
been made lately in our knowledge of both. Very little is 
known of the agency the atmosphere performs, and far less 
of what it is capable of performing in the production or 
even the transmission of light. It is believed by mauy 
that it may be made a constituent in the formation of light 
by chemical combination or otherwise. 

How light is transmitted the best students of nature are 
not agreed ; nor is it by any means certain that any thing 
is transmitted at all in the operation. 

It would add greatly to human progress if we could adopt 
means by which we could extend our visual observations 
into bodies partially opaque. Nothing is entirely opaque 
that is not black and with a rough surface. This, therefore, 



260 DIUTURNITY. 

seems to be the natural line between those bodies which, 
may be seen into and those which may not. Yery much 
would thus be added to our knowledge of the properties of 
matter, which knowledge lies at the yery bottom of human 
progress. For the lack of more knowledge in this direction, 
we know very little of the properties of the commonest sub- 
stances. We know but little of the atmosphere we breathe, 
the food we eat, the odors we smell; of gases, of wood, and 
other vegetables ; of water, of earth, oils, and, indeed, al- 
most every thing around us. Greater microscopic power is 
much needed for many purposes. 

Of the animalcule world we know not much. A deeper 
knowledge in this direction would add greatly to human 
advancement. The mere means of detecting unwholesome 
food would add greatly to health and longevity. And by 
this means, too, agriculture and domestic economy would 
be probably most immeasurably advanced; and so, too, the 
physiologist and the physician could see the animalcule 
workings in both the juices and solids of the human system. 
Many diseases could be arrested at once. Yellow fever and 
most if not all skin diseases are by many believed to be 
the direct workings of living animals, but nothing is demon- 
strated on the subject. 

If digestion, the circulation of the blood, the muscles, 
the brain, the juices and tissues, the fetus, the bones, etc., 
could be seen, it would most wonderfully facilitate our ad- 
vances in health, in morals, in science, and progress gen- 
erally. 

And, on the other hand, if we could extend our observa- 
tions in a telescopic direction, so as to examine more care- 
fully objects at a distance from us, no one can tell what 
great good might result. A better acquaintance with the 
moon will some day, in all likelihood, facilitate scientific 
researches greatly. 

We have begun many lessons in nature, but we have pur- 
sued nothing to any considerable extent. We have but just 



CONCERNING LIGHT AND VISION. 261 

got here. And we find ourselves surrounded with a vast 
machine, combining many thousand different combinations 
of chemical and mechanical things and principles of which 
we know, as yet, almost nothing. We have examined the 
surface of a few things, but of the vast susceptibility of 
the many things in the vast store-house, we have learned 
scarcely the alphabet. But here we have one great and im- 
portant truth, which is wonderfully consoling, though it is 
not satisfactory. We are still learning. We have pursued 
nothing to the end. 

But it is certain we are greatly deficient in most of the 
ordinary uses of light. In the day-time, where the light 
of the sun is not obstructed, we can generally see well 
enough for most of the ordinary purposes of life; but in 
the night, and in dark places, suppose we had no such in- 
vention as a lamp or candle. Industry and enjoyment would 
be cut short greatly. The amount of facilities we have in 
this way satisfies us tolerably well, simply because we know 
of nothing better. As we advance in the arts and sciences, 
we need more light for many purposes. How often are we 
in the dark; how many accidents, hindrances, and disad- 
vantages are met with every day and every night because 
we can not see around us. If we could see as well in night 
as in day, how greatly would all the departments of industry 
and knowledge progress! 

Within a few years past we have got to lighting our 
streets and factories, and the like, a little; but suppose the 
entire city, suburbs, neighborhood, and settled parts of the 
country around, with all roads, rivers, and the like, were 
well lighted all the while. Really, if we look at it rightly, 
this is an age of darkness literally. At great expense and 
labor, we light a taper here and there, but our children will, 
not long hence, call this the dark age. In hot summer, 
much travel and outdoor labor could be better done at 
night, if light were plenty and cheap. 



262 DIUTURNITY. 

The laws of nature, not our experience, are the measure 
of possibility; and the laws of nature were by no means in- 
tended to lie dormant and unused. Every section of every 
law was intended to be practically used for our advancement 
and happiness. 



CHAPTER LXXYI. 

CONCERNING ELECTRICITY — POSSIBILITY OP ITS DISCOVERY 
AND PRACTICAL USE. 

Electricity may be said to be an undiscovered agent or 
property, of the existence of which something is known, 
but of its character, properties, extent, or practical uses we 
know but very little at present. 

It was known six hundred years before the Christian era 
that amber, on being rubbed, would emit something which 
had the power of attracting, and sometimes of repelling, light 
substances; and it was subsequently ascertained that some 
other substances possessed the same or similar powers. Two 
thousand years afterward — in the year 1600 — an English 
physician first directed some scientific labors to the subject, 
but a century and a half passed before it was thought se- 
riously that mankind had any particular interest in the sub- 
ject. About one hundred years ago, Dr. Franklin and 
others, partly by accident, conceived the idea that lightning 
had something to do with this curious but apparently use- 
less thing; and experiment demonstrated their close rela- 
tionship and possible identity; and Franklin died without 
knowing scarcely any thing about electricity. In his day 
little or no attention was directed to electricity, properly 
speaking, but only to lightning, which is one of the very 



CONCERNING ELECTRICITY. 263 

numerous forms in which electricity becomes apparent. Its 
connection with many of the physical sciences has been dis- 
covered within the last forty years. 

The various departments in which this subject is pursued 
are, some of them, called animal magnetism, or electricity, 
electric fishes, electro-dynamics, electro-magnetism, electro- 
metallurgy, lightning, magneto-electricity, etc. But still 
all these discoveries are not known to relate directly to 
electricity, but to its development or action; for of elec- 
tricity itself, it can not as yet be said that we have any 
certain information. 

It is of two kinds, or perhaps it would be more proper 
to say that it acts or is acted on, we do not know which, 
in two different ways, called negative and positive. This neg- 
ative and positive action of electricity, it is quite probable, 
though science has not demonstrated it, may be the great 
principles of attraction and repulsion, which of late 
years is supposed to be the cause of all motion, both in all 
the heavenly bodies and in every atom of the earth. On 
this subject Newton's theory of the universe is seriously 
questioned; and, indeed, it is not impossible but that his 
great Principia may yet have to give place to a hypothesis 
more plausible and more scientific. 

The various phenomena, curious, practical, useful, and 
scientific, which may be produced in this field of knowledge 
are amazing beyond the marvelous as compared with our 
knowledge of the subject only forty or fifty years ago. Still, 
we have no more knowledge of its capacity, or powers, or 
adaptation than we have of any other thing almost wholly 
unknown. It seems to be present every-where and to have 
much to do with every thing. 

Galvanism is a branch of electrical science. It relates to 
the phenomena produced upon dead bodies by introducing 
electricity into them. It was discovered about fifty years ago 
in Italy, by mere accident, by Signor G-alvani, or rather more 
truly by his cook, and hence the name. 



264 DIUTTTRNITY. 

It would be both useless and hazardous to undertake even 
a partial description of the wonderful results attendant on 
what we suppose to be electricity. And these wonders are 
being so rapidly developed that descriptions and recitations 
become stale and devoid of much interest in even a year or 
two, sometimes. That all our present discoveries, in it are 
crude in the extreme is well known. Still, there has been 
enough discovered and demonstrated about electricity to 
render it certain that we have but just touched the edge 
of the border of a vast field, rich with human interests and 
most extensively varied in relationship and combination. 
There is little or no doubt but it pervades all physical na- 
ture; and more, there is good reason for believing that it 
forms the grand substratum and frame -work of all physical, 
moral, and intellectual being; that it is the great key to all 
science. Most likely this, and this alone, can lead us into 
the vestibule of psychology, and enable us to open the ave- 
nues to sentient life; and there is even hope that it may 
discover to us the relation between mind and matter, and 
possibly show to us the very principle of life and the con- 
necting link between the / myself of existence and the phe- 
nomena which it produces. 

Although it may be said that electricity is not yet dis- 
covered, yet a knowledge of its existence gives us an inti- 
mation of a further insight into nature than all the other 
physical sciences combined. The hopes it holds out to 
progressive science and human advancement are marvelous, 
almost beyond the dreams of fancy and imagination. That 
these hopes will be realized, and these advantages become 
practical and commonplace, we are obliged to believe, be- 
cause nothing is made in vain. 

If this world should wind up its affairs, or be put into 
liquidation before electricity shall have acted out on the 
open platform of human science and improvement the last 
round of its capability, and ministered its last natural func- 
tion and office to the wants of man, then this world would 



CONCERNING ELECTRICITY. 265 

exhibit a dark and gloomy spectacle to the gaze of the 
universe. It would show what would be most clearly im- 
possible, that Grod had created useless things. 

Dr. Hitchcock says (Religion of Geology, p. 423) : " It 
would seem, from recent discoveries, that electricity has a 
more intimate connection with mental operations than any 
other physical force. If not identical with the nervous in- 
fluence, it seems to be employed by the mind to accompany 
that influence to every part of the system; and the greater 
the mental excitement the more energetic the electric move- 
ment. It seems to us a marvelous discovery which enables 
man to convey and register his thoughts, at the distance of 
thousands of miles, by the electric wires. Should it excite 
any higher wonder to be told that, by means of this same 
power, all our thoughts are transmitted to every part of the 
universe, and can be read there by the acuter perceptions 
of other beings as easily as we can read the types or hiero- 
glyphics of the electric telegraph? Yet what a startling 
thought is it, that the most secret workings of our minds 
and hearts are momentarily spread out in legible characters 
over the whole material universe! Nay, that they are so 
woven into the texture of the universe that they will con- 
stitute a part of its web and woof forever! To believe and 
realize this is difficult; to deny it is to go in the face of 
physical science. How many things do we believe that are 
sustained by evidence far less substantial!" 

How ready we are to assume, and how thoughtless we are 
in assuming, that, with our present powers, we are capable of 
perceiving all such things as are in themselves capable of 
being perceived, and stand immediately connected with our 
interests! We ought to learn lessons as to the frailty of 
our powers of perception from the facts almost every day 
before our eyes, that the steady but apparently slow prog- 
ress of science is constantly leading us onward into new 
and still newer fields of discovery, where before lay naught 
but a broad, dark field of impenetrable impossibility. Things 
23 



2ft§ DIUTURNITT. 

■which yesterday were undoubted impossibilities, are to-day 
mere commonplaces. 

A full discovery and practical use of electricity must 
light up the halls of physical and natural science most won- 
derfully, and present to our observation much, very much 
fuller and clearer views of the wise and benevolent works 
and plans of the Almighty. 



SECTION FIFTH. 



We have now looked, somewhat in detail, at the relation 
of man to the world, first in some general points of light, 
and then in its physical, its intellectual, and its religious 
aspects; and in all these inquiries we find the world to be 
in a new, crude, beginning state. We find every thing 
begun but nothing finished. And I think we have vindi- 
cated the character of God from an impeachment of his 
goodness and wisdom, which would certainly be implied in 
the supposition that six thousand or seven thousand years 
was to measure the chronological existence of the world; 
because that would prove that, with comparatively a little 
exception, the vast untold and inconceivable amount of what 
I have denominated the furniture of the world was created 
to no valuable end. 

We come now to look more directly — following the same 
general course of argumentation — at the great sweep of diu- 
turnal ages the world must yet measure to be consistent 
and rational, and to look into the grand end and purpose 
of human religion; and in doing so, to see if we can find, 
upon principles of reason and common sense, such a happy 
period of the world as is sometimes called millennium; and, 
also, to look into what is frequently called the second com- 
ing of Christ, and see if we can find these in a consistent 
and rational form. 

Let the reader have patience. 



(267) 



CHAPTEE LXXVII. 

CONCERNING THE NATURAL WORK AND OFFICE OF HUMAN 
RELIGION — ITS THEATER AND ITS END. 

This is a reasonable, natural, philosophical world, with 
a reasonable, natural, philosophical Creator and Governor. 
There is no hap-hazard mistake or uncertainty about it. 
It was mapped out, contingencies and all, in the Divine un- 
derstanding; and whether we understand its programme 
or not, it will pursue its course, accomplish its design, and 
render up its account to God. And so far in its beginning 
stages, though men have oftentimes acted very unwisely, its 
course has been rational and reasonable. 

Remedial religion never ought to have been introduced 
into the world, because it ought not to have become neces- 
sary; but it did become necessary, and was therefore set 
up. This remedial system required, according to human 
comparisons, a vast amount of preparation ; that is, a vast 
amount of working before much, comparatively, would be 
accomplished. Its beginnings, taking the world as it is and 
was, must, for a time — to our comprehension a long time — 
be very slow. And then we are very poorly prepared to 
judge how much religion has done for the world. We have 
no predication for such a calculation. But it is the very nature 
of religion to progress according to what might be called 
almost geometrical progression. For a long time it shows 
but little result, and by little and little, after what our fac- 
ulties would regard a long time, it begins to attain a more 
firm foothold. 

Printing has just now come to the aid of Christianity; 
(269) 



270 MUTUItNITY. 

and steam, railroads, telegraphing, and all the branches of 
science are lending their assistance. And what other and 
greater facilities science and art may afford in the dissem- 
ination of truth and the spread and establishment of true 
religion, who can tell? 

The leaven of Christianity is fermenting among the na- 
tions. It is working; it is leavening the lump more and 
more, and spreading deeper and wider. And as the leaven 
extends and diffuses, Christianity will proceed and deepen 
with increased and still increasing momentum. Most likely 
even now we are on the eve of important events. Science 
is working wonders. Art is delving into nature and rush- 
ing on almost in advance of science. The indications, not 
entirely unintelligible, are that a brief space may mark 
wonders in religious progress; and more and more rapidly, 
by and by, a nation will be born in a day. Let the di- 
vinely-instituted means be worked without trying to patch 
up new ones; let the plan of salvation be worked, not 
mended, and the natural outgoings of Gospel truth will 
extend, take root, and still extend until its branches, like a 
moral banyan, will cover this fair earth. 

The Christian religion, like the telescope, creates nothing 
anew. It only reveals that which was not seen before. The 
laws and precepts of religion, we read in the Bible, are not 
true because they are written; they are written because they 
are true. They are no more true since they were written 
than before. They are eternally true, independently of rev- 
elation. 

Then it follows naturally that the simple religion of grace 
and faith, as it is written in the Old Testament, and more 
fully elaborated in the New, is well and skillfully geared 
into all the elements of man's moral, mental, and physical 
constitution, and sooner or later must work out and accom- 
plish all the ends and purposes of religion. Then let it be 
worked — worked as it is and where it is. This green earth, 
spread out as it is, with its advantages and disadvantages, 



CONCERNING HUMAN EELIGION. 271 

is its proper and natural theater. It needs no other — is 
suited to no other. The sling and stone are its proper in- 
struments; without it, it could not succeed, neither could it 
go in Saul's armor. 

More or less time will be required for Christianity to 
work out certain results and reach certain stages, as man 
shall be more or less faithful to his trusts. The time may 
be near at hand when it will seek a firmer foothold and 
move with greater rapidity. Times of general wickedness 
are not unfrequently followed by times of general revival. 
And religion moves, too, in circles and cycles; but its up- 
ward tendency is as sure as its system is true. 

As a matter of simple fact, there is written in the Bible 
a complete system of recovery from sin. This system in- 
terweaves between man as he is and his Maker as he is, 
and as both appear to be to man's natural comprehension. 
Sin in this world severed the connection once, but this sys- 
tem unites the parties together again. In form it is unde- 
niably a complete system; and supposing it to be Divine, it 
is infallibly arranged, and its end and office is the restora- 
tion of all this world to the love, obedience, and favor of 
God. And it is obviously and undeniably planned to work 
right here, in this very social system as it exists, and not 
in some other. It is palpably and certainly adapted and 
calculated to work among human governments, just as we 
now see them, and not in some other social system. A 
water-mill is hydraulic in its nature and construction, and 
will not work away from a running stream. In connection 
with it you need not eulogize the power of steam or some 
other power. It may be wonderfully beneficial in some cir- 
cumstances, but it is utterly useless in these. The religion 
we have writen is exactly adapted to this world, just as it 
is, and not to some other, nor to any radically changed con- 
dition of this. The relation, moral, social, intellectual, and 
physical, between man and his Savior, is exactly adjusted 
as things are shaped and agoing now; nay, more, the adap- 



272 DIUTURNITY. 

tation and adjustment are absolutely perfect, and equally and 
alike perfect as regards each and every individual person 
of the family of Adam. Let the Savior assume some other 
attitude, no matter what, and this system stands forth an 
acknowledged failure. 

When Christ undertook this salvation he knew what was 
in man. He was perfectly acquainted with his nature, habi- 
tudes, passions, instincts, and susceptibilities, and he adapted 
the plan to suit all these. It meets his hopes, fears, de- 
pravity, natural goodness, love of life, taste, circumstances — 
all, all, just as they are in fact, no matter how they came 
so. Was there a mistake — a failure? Was the work greater 
or different from what was calculated upon? Or why are 
the tactics to be changed? 

This system of recovering religion has been in operation, 
in its incipient stages, developing itself more and more, for 
about six or seven thousand years. And in that compara- 
tively brief space, brief for such a work, it has already made 
some advances. Being divinely set up, it will continue. It 
has never worked with but one set of means; it needs no 
others — can use no others. No others would be adapted to 
its machinery. A Savior in some other position or relation 
would be no Savior to us. Human relationships require 
corresponding and cooperating positions. Change these and 
you destroy the system. Judge and criminal, parent and 
child, friend and friend occupy a natural position toward 
each other. 

The machinery of religion is right now. It has proper 
adaptedness and proper and feasible ends; and it has its 
proper theater. Christ is in the right place — just as visible, 
just as invisible, as the wants of the case require. His kingly 
power and all his other power is exercised in exactly the 
right way. He now views the earth, the world, man, society, 
governments, families, the Church, and each and every in- 
dividual person from the point of observation which is 
exactly the best. Every thing is in place. A change of 



ARE THERE PEW THAT BE SAVED? 273 

programme would be ruinous. Nothing is needed but that 
the system be worked — worked as it is. 

We see the work of this system now, in individual in- 
stances, to be most successfully triumphant. All that is 
needed is, that it proceed far enough. Christianity predi- 
cates salvation not only of individual persons, but of the 
race. If it shall proceed until the whole race shall be 
thoroughly Christianized, and cause it to remain so finally, 
and thus conduct the world on into the diuturnal ages of 
sinless life, then it may be said it was a success, otherwise 
it stands an acknowledged failure. 



CHAPTER LXXVIII. 

ARE THERE FEW THAT BE SAVED? — LUKE XIII: 23. 

And after all, in the great sequel, what will be the final 
result of this remedial system of salvation? Will it prove 
a success? Or what will be the -grand issue? The strug- 
gle is between the Savior and the devil, each striving for 
universal supremacy. The issue is fairly made up and the 
champions are in the field. Which will be the victor? Or 
will it be a drawn battle? Will the saved be comparatively 
few or many? The young ruler wanted to know about this. 
The inquiry was a little irrelevant, out of place just then and 
there, but in itself there was nothing wrong in it. 

The contest commenced with most fearful odds on the part 
of the great leader of evil, and the means put forth by Christ 
appeared to human eyes most feeble and inadequate. And 
as the warfare opened and progressed, the armies of sin con- 
tinued overwhelmingly large, and seemed to bear down all 
opposition. And so, for the most part, it has continued to 
the present time. And, as yet, no very considerable advan- 



274 BIUTURNITY. 

tage has been gained by Christ. The ranks of sin are still 
large and powerful; its front is bold and defiant; its rniefi 
is lofty, self-reliant, and self-confident. And to a superficial 
observer it may seem as if Christianity would be a failure; 
and then, indeed, there will be but "few" saved. 

But a more enlarged view will teach that the contest has 
but fairly commenced. In so short a time but little could 
be expected. So far, certainly, but few are saved; but let 
us have patience. Things on a scale as wide as a world, 
and moving in a cycle which may include hundreds of thou- 
sands of years, may move at a pace which, to our feeble 
faculties, may seem very slow; but the long continued tri- 
umphs of sin, as they seem to us, are but brief transitory 
apj>earances. The successes are so brief that they are 
merely apparent, not real. What are a few thousand years 
of apparent triumph? In a great scale of a world's opera- 
tions it amounts to nearly nothing. A criminal may elude 
the arm of justice, and swagger and boast for a few days 
or years, but his triumph is short. The slow but sure 
tread of justice overtakes him in due time, and his short- 
lived independence is over. 

Sin must fail, because it is wrong ; and its failure must be 
signal, complete, thorough, overwhelming. And it must not 
only fail in some way, but it must fail in the simple, straight- 
forward pursuance of the regular means first, and once for 
all, set on foot by the Almighty for its destruction. It is 
not enough to say that Christ will finally succeed, but is 
quite as necessary that he succeed in the way he began. 
He advertised to the world and to the universe a particular 
system of grace, which we now see; and in and by this sys- 
tem he approached his adversary, pledging his name that 
here and by this he would conquer. With this system we 
are familiar. We see it every day, and know it by the ac- 
customed name of Christianity. 

While the struggle is going on, a few thousands, a few 
millions, a few thousand millions will be lost; but, compara- 



ARE THERE PEW THAT BE SAVED? 275 

tively, they are few. But the scale will turn, must turn, and 
Christianity will spread and deepen at a rate far exceeding 
any thing hitherto known in the history of this strife, 

The age of the world — the course of time mainly — all ex- 
cept these few thousand years that are past, is yet before 
it. With this little exception, it has its course yet to run. 
Multiplied millions — numbers far away beyond the feeble 
imaginings of men — numbers in comparison with which the 
one hundred and twenty thousand millions who have here- 
tofore been born into the world are but as a drop in the 
bucket — are yet to live and die in this world. The per- 
fected day of the world will yet come; and in that age, the 
diuturnal round of its appointed cycles, the Lord will reign 
wholly in the hearts of men without a rival; and then all 
who live will live and die in Christ. 

His reign will be in the hearts of men. He reigns over 
men in no other way. The great characteristic difference 
between the rule of Christ and that of earthly rulers is seen 
just here. The one reigns in the heart; the other seeks to 
control the mere external actions. This difference is not 
because the one is divine and the other human, but because 
of the very nature of earthly and spiritual rule. 

In that day, that period, all will belong to Christ, and he 
will reign without a rival. It will then be seen that Satan 
was but a miserable pretender; that he strutted in imagin- 
ary triumph, a little brief authority for a short period; but 
that Christ was the great ruler. It will then be seen that 
Christ, in his presently working system of grace and faith, 
was not a mere competitor of Satan. His triumph shall be 
great and glorious. There shall be no drawn battle. The 
ruins of the fall shall be rebuilt, completely rebuilt. And 
man, as a race, shall be brought back to his rightful alle- 
giance; and the way to heaven, by the simple means of 
grace and faith, shall be thronged, thronged with the dense, 
countless, teeming millions of the Lord's redeemed; and 
the way to hell shall be grown over with the brier and the 



276 DIUTURNITY. 

bramble and the moss of time, with, here and there a lonely 
traveler, despised and forsaken of himself, his fellows, and 
his God. 

And the comparison of the saved and the lost shall be as 
the free people of H great commonwealth contrasted with the 
little handful of convicts in the cells of its penitentiary. 
Christ shall be the great master, without a rival, for his tri- 
umph shall be without a struggle. 



CHAPTER LXXIX. 

CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD, IMPROPERLY CALLED A 
MILLENNIUM ITS PHILOSOPHY AND NATURALNESS. 

A treatise of this sort should contain a chapter spe- 
cifically upon what is commonly called the millennium; first, 
because a good deal of public thought lies, or is supposed 
to lie, in that specific direction; and, secondly, because of 
the unscriptural, unnatural, and unphilosophic arguments 
which have been put forth on the subject, of late, by sev- 
eral writers. 

There has been a tradition lingering along in the Church 
since some time before the Christian era, and cropping out 
occasionally, that the world was to close its history with 
one thousand years of universal peace, plenty, and holiness. 
Some of the early Christian writers — a very few of them — 
who, for some reasons, I know not what, are called fathers, 
seemed to favor the doctrine, and the belief has obtained 
more or less to the present day. 

In the time of Cromwell, in England, there arose a re- 
ligious sect called 3Iillennarians, or Fifth Monarchy men. 
They held that just at that time Christ was to appear in 
human form and establish an earthly empire, which would 



CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 277 

Tbe the fifth great monarchy, the ancient monarchies of As- 
syria, Persia, Greece, and Rome being the preceding four. 
They claimed to be saints, and cited abundance of Scrip- 
ture which they claimed supported their views. The im- 
mediate coming of Christ, they said, was incontestably proven. 
Many of this sect were first-class men for piety and intel- 
ligence. Since then we have had writings and doctrines on 
the subject all the way. They claim support from a doubt- 
ful expression in the book of Revelation, and some few other 
passages. 

The Fifth Monarchy men were mistaken, it is certain, with 
regard to the time when the millennium, as they called it, 
would begin; but, correcting this error, the doctrine and 
belief have continued, with more or less regularity, to the 
present time. Of late years, we are told the second appear- 
ance of Jesus Christ must occur at precisely the six thou- 
sandth year of the world. On this point we will have a few 
observations to make in a future chapter. 

This prophecy in Revelation — for there is but one ex- 
pression relied on — is written in the most highly figurative 
language of any in Scripture, and yet we are told it must 
be understood literally ; and yet it could hardly mean that 
Satan was to be chained with an iron chain, and that it 
must be fastened with a hey, made by a locksmith, and a 
seal. The meaning is, rather, that the Savior, in the reg- 
ular, onward working of religion, will effectually lay his 
adversary under restraints; will subdue his power and ar- 
rest his influence, by which he has deceived and destroyed 
so many. The thousand years he is to be so bound, is, it 
might be safely said, I think, according to the uniform and 
almost undisputed criticism, a very long time — an immeasur- 
ably long period. When this language was written, it must 
be remembered, there was no word in human language de- 
noting a greater number than a thousand or myriad, which 
sometimes, but not always, meant ten thousand. Our word 
million is of recent origin. In Scripture language, the term 



278 DIUTURNITY. 

most generally used to denote a very great number answers 
to our word thousand. This is the meaning in Acts xxi: 
20, and many other places. 

The Scriptures speak of the coming of Christ and the 
second time, etc. ; but this certainly does not always mean 
a visible appearance. In Heb. ix : 28, it is said he will 
" appear the second time," at the Judgment. Now, accord- 
ing to such literal interpretations as we are instructed to 
make, this could not be his second coming, for we are told 
by the same persons that the second coming will be one 
thousand years before the Judgment. Moreover, second, in 
Scripture language, is not always confined to mean the next 
after the first, but sometimes means another. 

By another coming of Christ is generally meant a signal 
display of his spiritual power and glory. He will be with 
the Church, or worshiping assembly, every-where; but this 
.can not mean a human appearance. This point will be en- 
larged upon in another chapter. 

"A thousand years," spoken of in the 20th chapter of 
Revelation, can not mean literally that number of years. 
Dr. Clark is " satisfied this period should not be taken lit- 
erally." He very properly remarks: "It is not likely that 
the number, a thousand years, should be taken literally 
here, and year symbolically and figuratively in all the Book 
beside." He says, and indeed, with a few incidental excep- 
tions, every body says, "the term a thousand years is a 
mystic number among the Jews. It signifies an immeasur- 
ably long time, and is a feeble synonym of our word eter- 
nity." 

It is well known that in Scripture time-measure a day is 
frequently put for a. year.. So the time calculations are 
generally made; and so it is considered that if any defi- 
nite period be intended at all, in this place, it means three 
hundred and sixty thousand years. This is the opinion of 
the learned Dr. Whitby and Dr. Doddridge, and many 
others. 



CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 279 

The idea that there is to be solid peace to this world 
during the mere space of one thousand years, is so cramped 
and so circumscribes the work and programme of the Al- 
mighty Being, that it is absolutely derogatory to his char- 
acter, and even contemptible. 

Dr. Clark thinks the thousand years spoken of in the 
fourth verse of this chapter may " signify that there shall 
be a long and undisturbed state of Christianity; and so 
universally shall the Gospel spirit prevail, that it will ap- 
pear as if Christ reigned upon the earth, which will, in 
effect, be the ease, because his spirit shall rule in the hearts 
of men." 

This harmonizes with both Scripture and common sense. 
It looks reasonable that after the contest between sin and 
holiness should close, that the world should be at peace. 
Sin naturally introduces an irregular, twilight period of 
trial and contention. Christ reigns and Satan reigns, and 
the rule of neither is complete. Some follow one and some 
the other. Nothing is complete. Every thing is begun, but 
nothing is finished. It is a period of pupilage, a school- 
boy age, the morning twilight of the world; it is an un- 
fortunate excrescence upon our history, a period of feeble- 
ness and disease. 

When sin had the effect of turning Satan loose in the 
world, Christ stepped forward as the champion and defender 
of our cause. His work will be done, effectually done — not 
partially but wholly — and the world shall be sinless; and 
afterward there shall be a period of three hundred and 
sixty thousand years, or more likely an indefinite period, 
immeasurably long, of sinless peace, when holiness shall 
be uniform and then universal, love to God and to man 
shall predominate in every heart. The idea that this period 
of regular life shall last one thousand years is, I repeat, 
disgraceful and ridiculous, considering that it marks the 
great plan of God and a world. What is one thousand 
years in the scope and operations of a world? The circle 



280 DICJTURNITY. . 

of the Divine operations are not thus to be cramped down 
into the narrow plans and precincts of domestic life. A 
world is not made to administer and close up its affairs in 
such periods as you would prescribe to a commercial cor- 
poration or a nationality to wind up its plans and give 
place to a successor. It is such restricted, liliputian, 
school-boy views as these that give rise to the thousand- 
year millennium doctrine. A thousand years may seem long 
to children or even to men, but what is it in the plans of 
the world? 

The binding of Satan with a chain, so as to render him 
powerless, denotes very plainly a sinless condition of the 
world. This sinless period is abundantly set forth in Scrip- 
ture in many places, as is hereinbefore fully explained. 
But that this sinless period will be a mere winding-up 
scene, to last a few years just at the close of the world's 
course, is a notion not only gratuitous, so far as Scripture 
is concerned, but is openly at war with reason and analogy, 
and entirely unlike such large and liberal views as we must 
_. attribute to the Divine Being in planning the course of a 
world. 

It has been shown, in the preceding chapters, that al- 
though this world is six or seven thousand years old, still 
it is in an infantile condition ; that its adult period, so to 
speak, is far in the future as respects progress, at least ; and, 
very likely, as respects time, it may not have measured half 
the days of its morning twilight. 

We are not at liberty to presume, either from reason or 
revelation, that the entering of sin into the world, creating 
thereby the necessity of a remedial system of salvation, is 
going finally to thwart the great purposes of God in bring- 
ing this world into being. These purposes, so far as we 
can understand them, must have been the glory of God and 
the enlargement of the happiness of his creatures. This 
was intended to be a world of holy and happy people, who 
should live and love and adore God ; where peace, harmony, 



CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 281 

good-will, truth, strict obedience to God, and kindness, jus- 
tice, love, and friendship to all men, should find scope and 
a theater for action; a world on which God could look 
down with complacency, where the great ends of creation 
should be worked out. These great purposes are not to 
be finally thwarted. 

They may be baffled for a season; indeed they are, but 
it shall be only for a little season. Christ will conquer his 
enemy fully, completely, finally; and then the world will go 
on. Its history will see the day when it will almost be 
forgotten that such a thing as sin ever happened to it. 
Peace will be restored to this world. Sin, with its train of 
evils, will be thwarted, and Christ will reign supreme. It 
will be as good a world yet as its Maker intended from the 
beginning. There is nothing in either reason or revelation 
to justify the belief that sin is to continue throughout all 
or even a large portion of this world's course; that the 
world is to be a sickly, wilted thing during almost all its 
life. 

We are clearly and indubitably taught, in many places, 
that sin is a curable malady ; that, however fatal it may be 
to any number of individuals, so far as the world is con- 
cerned, it is curable and will be cured; that €hrist will, 
after a time, hind Satan for an immeasurably long period ; 
that this change will come about gradually, and from natural 
causes already in being and visible to all men. Neverthe- 
less men will still be born with a tendency to sin. This must 
needs be, because we are born of a sinful parentage. But 
a tendency to sin does not necessarily produce sin. As a 
matter of fact, it does so in the present condition of things ; 
but this state of things will improve, until the circumstances 
surrounding men, as they are born into the world, will en- 
tirely overcome this tendency, so that there will be no 
actual sin. 

This idea is previously elaborated, and, of course, this 
greatly changed and improved condition of things can not 
24 



282 DITJTURNITT. 

take place in any short time. It may not be brought about 
in less than thousands of years. It will be the result of 
great advances and improvements in science, morals, and 
religion. But Christianity is fully adequate to the task. 
It was planned and intended for this very purpose. 

The doctrine that a part of the history of this world will 
be sinless is so plainly and repeatedly taught in Scripture, 
that it has not been directly controverted, so far as I know. 
But it is strangely assumed by many, without either testi- 
mony or argument that I know of, that this will be only a 
brief closing scene, just at the end; but this is a naked 
assumption, resting upon neither analogy, Scripture, nor 
reason. 

The millennarians claim that the phrase a thousand years 
is to be understood literally, or according to the modern 
meaning of that word, and that the holiness of that period 
is to be brought about by some new and miraculous pro- 
cesses connected with what they call the second coming of 
Christ. This is inferred from a previous assumption, which 
is demonstrably untrue, that a state of sin and great moral 
irregularity and derangement is the normal condition of the 
world. This is sufficiently marvelous and exciting for poetry 
and the embellishments of romance, but can not be received 
as sober reasoning. 

Sin is not the normal condition of the world. The sup- 
position is a clear, naked assumption, without a word or 
a reason to support it. Sin is a thing which happened in 
the world — a thing which ought not to have happened; 
and deep as was the misfortune, it is a curable misfortune. 
The Son of God undertook this cure, and pledged himself, 
before heaven and earth, to accomplish it — to accomplish it 
fully. And because it requires six or ten or fifteen thou- 
sand years to do it, it is childishly inferred that this period 
is so very great that surely no more time can be afforded 
for the world's life. And when the Scriptures speak of the 
sinless period of the world, it is in the face of Scripture, 



CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 283 

well understood; and, in opposition to all analogy, it is in- 
ferred that it must, in the first place, be brought about by 
some radical, marvelous, and unnatural means ; and, secondly, 
that it must be a mere hasty winding-up period. They 
mistake the normal world — its proper life — for its mere 
unnatural, closing scenes. 

But I see no necessity for an abandonment of the means 
and processes we now have for the renovation of the world. 
Give it time, and it will carry the world right onward into 
holiness, where it belongs. The natural condition of the 
world is such that in it it shall not be needful for one man 
to teach another, saying, " Know the Lord ; " for all shall 
know him, from the least to the greatest. 

The course of time may be divided into two periods, differ- 
ing widely from each other in some respects, the one running 
gradually and by slow degrees into the other. The first 
period, that which we are now in, is one of strife between 
sin and holiness. It is marked with great irregularity, .its 
beginning years, several thousand in duration, being dread- 
fully sinful, but with slow, imperceptible improvements, 
until, in process of time, sin shall be eradicated, and the 
world will assume its natural, normal, sinless condition. 

In this condition aggressive or persuasive religion will 
have worked its work thoroughly, and will cease with the 
necessity for it. Nothing will be authoritatively withdrawn 
or discontinued, but persuasive religion will cease when it 
has no more to do. 

Now, this sinless period so coming about from natural 
causes now in operation, the entire course of it is what I un- 
derstand by the so-called "millennium"— the long, long period 
of sinless peace, the world's proper normal condition, its 
adult life after these twilight morning clouds shall have 
passed away. Sin will have troubled the world for a little 
season and will then pass away. 

How long either of these periods will be no man can 
know further than this, that the latter will be millennial, or 



284 DIUTERNITY. 

a very long time, or, in more proper language, countless 
myriads of years. The former period, from the general ap- 
pearance of the world and its history, we might hope would 
not continue more than a few, perhaps three or four or ten 
thousand, years longer. I confess that, from all the general 
appearances, I can but conjecture that sin will not last in 
the world more than one, two, or three thousand years. 
These periods, however, will be commensurate with the large 
ideas of a God and a world. To cramp them into the di- 
mensions of mere human operations, or to fit them to the 
capacity or convenience of mere human modes of measure- 
ment, is both illiberal and unphilosophical. 

You may call these two periods of the world by any arti- 
ficial names you may choose, the former is the beginning 
state, and the latter the adult life proper. The one is the 
irregular, twilight beginnings of the morning, and the other 
is the day; the one is the childhood, the other the man- 
hood; so that mainly, after all, the years of the world will 
be according to the original design. With the exception of 
this morning twilight period of strife with Satan, the world 
will be worthy its original design — holy, Godlike. 

The millennium, as it is miscalled, is not to be the mere 
closing scene, or mere winding-up period of one thousand 
years — but the age, the lifetime proper of the world, after the 
boyhood period of strife shall have passed away. This looks 
philosophical, natural, and, withal, it is eminently Scriptural, 
Some verbal errors, the one relating to the true meaning of 
"a thousand years," and a few others, have led to these 
cramped and unnatural views of the life of the world. 

But it is said that, after the period of peace, however 
long or short that period may be, Satan will be let loose 
again to deceive the nations. Well, if so, be it so. There 
are various conjectures with regard to the proper inter- 
pretation of some few words of the 20th chapter of Reve- 
lation. I know of no author of standing who claims to have 
a satisfactory opinion as to their true meaning. Dr. Clark 



CONCERNING THE SINLESS PERIOD. 285 

says of these doubtful expressions : " These can be only 
symbolical representations, utterly incapable of the sense 
generally put upon them." They probably refer to some 
state or states of the world away in the remote ages of its 
existence, and are certainly not very intelligible in the 
present condition of things. 

When we come to file our demurrer to these speculations, 
we will look at them from other points of observation; but 
I close this chapter with a few practical remarks. 

First. This doctrine of millennium, if contained in the 
Bible, is by very far the most important doctrine revealed 
to us, save the bare isolated fact of redemption; and then 
it is remarkable, indeed, that it rests upon one single ex- 
pression, in the most highly figurative and unintelligible 
portion of all the words of revelation. All the other doc- 
trines are mentioned in scores, if not hundreds, of places. 

Secondly. It is remarkable that, up to the present time, 
the Church should not have discovered it. It was never 
the doctrine of the Church, nor of any part of the Church, 
save perhaps the Fifth Monarchy men ; and it is very certain 
their doctrine on the subject was untrue, for Christ did not 
come, and the millennium set in as they believed. The doc- 
trine rests solely upon the spasmodic and sensational pro- 
ductions of a few men. And then it is perhaps worthy of 
note, that among those writers there does not chance to be 
one who can be said, with any reasonableness, to occupy a 
position among theologians of solid distinction. I do not 
produce this as an argument, for it is not conclusive; but 
it is a visible circumstance. 

Tliirdly. The issue, closing scene, denouement, or winding- 
up period of happiness, called millennium, as derived from the 
20th chapter of Revelation, is, at most and at best, a piece 
of literary product, manufactured with as much or as little 
skill as the occasion required. It is a separate, independ- 
ent, and distinct thing, with no ostensible or ascertained 
connection with human religion of any kind, true or false. 



286 DIUTERNITT. 

It can by possibility rest upon no natural, philosophic, or 
reasonable foundations — can sustain no relation to human 
affairs, because it lies wholly outside the physical, moral, and 
mental territories we call nature. The entire conjectures, 
or, if any one chooses, reasonings, rest solely and exclusively 
upon the etymology of the Greek phrases which we translate 
into these two words, "thousand years." And yet a class of 
writers speak of millennium as though it were something 
which stands fitted into the frame-work of revealed religion. 
And, fourthly, the millennial doctrine places the present era 
of the world in a relation to the past and the future, which 
narrows down the operations of the Creator into conditions 
and limitations the most liliputian and disgraceful, and 
makes him a mere time-serving manufacturer of little things. 
And so it chains and fetters the mind of man down to a nar- 
row alphabet of thought and contemplation respecting his 
Maker, and cramps and depresses our ideas of very existence 
into the surveyed and limited precincts of verbalists and 
copyists. If their doctrine be true, the world is a failure ! 
Daniel Webster could have planned a better ! 



CHAPTER LXXX. 

CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST — A DEMURRER 
TO SOME RECENT THEORIES. 

Sensation treatises on the second coming of Christ are 
not very uncommon. They are frequently the production 
of talent, and are sometimes put forth in the most engaging 
forms of imagery, and clothed in beautiful rhetoric and 
verbiage, and frequently in such a profuse Scripture phra- 
seology that its very indefiniteness of meaning and lack of 
naturalness of idea give them popularity. Mystery itself 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OP CHRIST. 287 

has a sort of charm about it, when put forth in engaging 
forms and clothed in classical oriental phraseology. 

The second-coming writers of the present day, though 
they differ much oftentimes in the manner of presenting 
the subject, yet they build generally upon the same kind 
of foundation and find the same general conclusions. The 
arguments are generally supported by a profuse peace-meal 
quotation from all over the Scriptures, particularly, and 
indeed entirely, its most allegorical expressions. 

If we reduce their embellished hypotheses to sober prac- 
tical meaning, they hold that the man Jesus Christ, who 
lived and was crucified in Jerusalem, will return again to 
the earth, will come down as a man out of heaven, and, in 
his proper manhood and human capacity, will live on the 
earth as other men live on it. He will take up his resi- 
dence, they mostly agree, in the city of Jerusalem, and 
there he will assume the reins of civil government, and 
reign as an earthly monarch, not only over the Ottoman 
Empire, but over all Asia and all the world. He will over- 
turn and upset all the existing civil governments, and all 
the ecclesiastical establishments, and will be, in fact, a uni- 
versal civil emperor, with full powers over the nations and 
people, civil, legislative, judicial, executive, and ecclesiastical. 
He is to set up a literal, visible, political kingdom, and rule 
and reign as any other earthly monarch would rule, only 
his reign will be "glorious," whatever that may mean, uni- 
versal and preeminently good. 

He will thus rule upon the earth for the space of one 
thousand years, during which time the preeminent advan- 
tages of his administration will be such that all living men 
will soon become entirely holy. All sin will now become 
eradicated from the earth, and the world will be absolutely 
pure. And then, at the close of the one thousand years, some 
tell us, the earth will be burned up with fire, and nothing 
will be left but its ashes. Others tell us it will be "glori- 
fied," and become heaven. 

\ 



288 DIUTURNITY. 

They all agree, I believe, that, during this period of one 
thousand years, the world will be under the immediate con- 
trol of Christ, and the affairs of the world, as well as of 
human society and association, will be radically different 
from what they are at present; but in what these changes 
•will consist I have not seen it particularly intimated. 
Whether there will be, practically, such things as arts, 
science, husbandry, industry, commerce, courts of judica- 
ture, literature, what we now call religion, etc., I have not 
seen it intimated. The preaching of the Gospel, religious 
teaching, churches, and our usual external forms of worship, 
could be no more known, I presume, though I have not 
seen this particularly stated, as I remember. "The Chris- 
tian dispensation," as, for some reason unknown to me, this 
present state of things is called, will then be at an end. 

I have thus given an outline of this doctrine of millen- 
nium and second corning in my own language for the sake 
of brevity and perspicuity. To quote fully from those 
writings would be too voluminous. But I think the case 
is fairly stated ; and to support this doctrine it is of course 
necessary to support the several hypotheses out of which 
the general doctrine grows, and which, I believe, are, on all 
hands, acknowledged and claimed to be the following: 

I. The world has nearly answered the purposes of its 
creation. It is about as old as it was intended ever to be, 
and is now ready to wind up its affairs and cease to exist 
under its present constitution. 

II. The world is to continue to increase in wickedness 
until Christ shall come and turn the tide in the other di- 
rection. 

III. The chronology of the world must measure out pre- 
cisely six thousand years at the time of the coming. 

IV. The Jews are to be restored ; by which is meant that 
the entire living progeny of Jacob will be gathered together 
and form a political commonwealth inhabiting the land of 
Palestine. v 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 289 

These several things must all go together; for, as we are 
told on all hands, so far as I know, they are essential parts 
of the system. But there are some objections against these 
hypotheses which might be stated, it seems to me, without 
joining the issue specifically. 

And, first, with regard to the full, ripe maturity of the 
world, or its old age, that question is argued at length in 
other parts of this treatise. And here it need perhaps be 
only remarked that, in support of the hypothesis, I have 
not known an argument, good or bad, to be attempted. It 
is nakedly assumed, without a reason, that the world is old; 
that it has about run its course, and is at the termination 
of its career. The possibility of an error on this point does 
not seem to have entered the minds of those writers. The 
world is old and worn out, and these are its "latter days," 
because it is old and worn out and these are its latter days. 
It has not been deemed worth while to look and see whether 
all the furniture of the world has been used at all, whether 
any of it has been used to the natural extent of its obvious 
capability, whether any thing has been finished. If men 
will but stand still one moment and look out upon the world, 
they will see thousands of things begun and nothing finished. 
They will see that nationalities have not arranged for the 
settlement of little petty difficulties without going to war, 
and slaying millions and ruining millions more. We have 
learned nothing except very partially; we have done noth- 
ing except very partially. We see around us a vast amount 
of plan and adaptation, but nothing actually geared and in- 
terworking. If the world is not in a new, crude, beginning 
state, then it is a clumsy failure. If system, plan, arrange- 
ment may be predicated of th6 works and ways of the 
Almighty, then is this world in its infantile state. 

Secondly. The world will continue to grow worse and 
worse until it is six thousand years old, when Christ will 
come in human person, and the entire face of things will be 
changed. 

25 



290 DIUTURNITY. 

This proposition, with most cool indifference and com- 
placency, assumes a very important historic fact, which is 
wholly and undoubtedly untrue. It assumes that the world 
is growing worse. Is this true? Is the world growing 
worse in morals and religion, or is it growing better? The 
latter, most assuredly, is true. A very hasty and superfi- 
cial observation, very sectional and very partial, might prove, 
or seem to prove, otherwise. The same kind of observation 
would, on some particular days, and in some particular 
localities, in the month of April, prove that the weather was 
growing colder, and that summer never could come; but a 
comparison of periods, more distant from each other, and 
more general as to locality, would prove that summer was 
regularly and unmistakably approaching. The experience 
of one man, oftentimes, may be, that during one entire day 
in October, the weather is growing warm; but this does not 
prove that the seasons have forgotten their accustomed 
changes. A more general experience will prove the very 
reverse. 

And so, in the other case, let account be taken of the en- 
tire world at any two periods far enough distant to make 
an observation, say five hundred or one thousand years, and 
who will not say the world is improving in morals and re- 
ligion? What was the state of religion and morals in the 
world six hundred years ago ? or one thousand, or two thou- 
sand, or five thousand years ago ? Improvement is often- 
times seemingly and may be really, somewhat irregular; and 
in times and places the real state of society, in this regard, 
is latent to our observation. It appears better or worse 
than it really is. But that the world generally is improv- 
ing regularly and very considerably in morals, in religion, 
in science, arts, industry, in every thing valuable to man- 
kind, is a truth which is patent to the observation of all 
men of observation. To deny this is to deny the most pal- 
pable historic facts. 

An argument, therefore, that holds that the morals and 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 291 

religion of the world will continue to grow worse and worse 
until six thousand years, and then "a new dispensation" 
will usher in and take matters in hand to improve them, 
because they can not improve them under such a dispensa- 
tion as this, can not be a good one. It does not make out a 
case. It needs no opponent, because it is in deadly hostility 
with itself. 

Thirdly, as to the chronology. The second coming must 
occur, it is held on all hands, I believe, among late writers, 
at the close of just six thousand years from the creation of 
Adam. Some consider it necessary to calculate the time to 
the very month and day, but mostly it is not considered 
that calculations can or need be made so very accurately. 
The calculations differ somewhat, or are considered some- 
what uncertain. They all come within a few years — four 
or five or ten at most — so they can not set down the exact 
time of the event. According to the best millennarian au- 
thority the true time is about 1866, or certainly from that 
to 1870. Some considered it 1864 or 1865. There is a 
little uncertainty in our chronology, 'they say. 

And so, such scientific chronology as this is put forth in 
printed books, by men of letters, and sold in book-stores, and 
men buy and read them, and consider them respectable for 
science and learning. 

But what are some of the simple, well-known truths with 
regard to ancient chronology? There is no ancient chronol- 
ogy that is at all reliable. The true date of the world is not 
known with any reasonable probability within one thousand 
years; and, indeed, it is not known with any approach to 
certainty within several thousand years. This may appear 
strange to persons who have not taken the pains to inform 
themselves on the subject. They look into their Bibles and 
see the date of the world at the head of the columns, and 
they regard this as a settled matter. But they are greatly 
mistaken. In many Bibles you will see two sets of chronol- 
ogies, varying more than one thousand years from each other. 



292 DIUTURNITY. 

The variation relates to very ancient times, chiefly, bnt by no 
means wholly, to the period before the flood. 

Ancient chronology is one of the most difficult and per- 
plexing subjects known to learning; and it is one that, in all 
likelihood, science will never be able to settle satisfactorily. 
The difficulties are many and of many different kinds. To 
say that the Bible teaches on the subject, is to say little or 
nothing. The Bible, indeed, teaches but very little ; and the 
question is, what does the Bible teach? According to some 
modes of computation, approved by some scholars, the He- 
brew versions will place the flood in the year of the world 
1656, while the Samaritan Pentateuch places it, by the same 
modes of calculation, in the year 1307, and the Septuagint 
in 2262 ; and Josephus, authority much relied upon by 
scholars, puts it in 2256. Now, here is a variation of al- 
most one thousand years before the flood. Other modes of 
calculation differ still more widely. One of the best short 
treatises on this subject extant is in Appleton's New Amer- 
ican Cyclopedia. We are there told that "the estimates of 
the real epoch of the creation of Adam, by students of the 
Old Testament, vary from 3616 to 6984 B. C." And these 
estimates or calculations, even the outside ones, it is not 
pretended by any, have been demonstrated to be incorrect; 
but, on the contrary, though others differ in opinion from 
them, they are treated with profound respect and consid- 
eration by all the first chronologers known to literature. 

This subject has had the extensive labors of more than 
one hundred of the best scholars. Many have devoted 
many years to its study and research, and among such men 
we have differences of opinion, not, most assuredly, of five 
or six years, but of more than three thousand three hundred 
years. And for an author, pretending to write with scien- 
tific accuracy on this subject, and give out that the chron- 
ological calculations vary five or six or ten years, is, I do 
not hesitate to say, disgraceful. 

I will admit, however, because it is true, that generally, 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 293 

among scholars who have devoted study to this subject, it 
is considered probable that we can approach, with reasonable 
belief, to within from one thousand to sixteen hundred years 
of the true date of the Adamic creation. Beyond that I can 
not admit, because it is not true. 

Dr. George Smith, of England, is well known in the em- 
pire of letters as one of the first authors of his age. He 
has lately issued three works on oriental history, viz : " He- 
brew People," "Gentile Nations," and "Patriarchal Age." 
In the last-named he devotes considerable space to this sub- 
ject. He examines, at some length, the chronological num- 
bers in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint versions of 
the Bible, and is decidedly of the belief that the long num- 
bers of the Septuagint have claims to correctness decidedly 
superior to those of the other two. This opinion on this 
one point makes the world now very nearly, if not quite, 
seven thousand years old. Most scholars, I believe, incline 
to this opinion. Bishop Usher does not pretend that his 
system is correct. He claims, and no doubt correctly, that 
his calculations are. It is not likely that there is one able 
scholar extant, who has studied the subject deeply, who will 
not, in one shape or other, admit that it is probable that 
the world, since the creation of Adam, was six thousand 
years old nearly, if not quite, one thousand years ago. 

And yet, without an allusion to the well-known uncer- 
tainties investing this subject, it is gravely assumed, as an 
unquestioned thing, and as the basis of an extensive scien- 
tific argument, that the six thousandth year of the world 
must occur within a very few years of 1866. Such debat- 
ing needs no opposition, because a case is not made out ex- 
parte. It is not shown that it is certain that the chronol- 
ogy of the world will measure out six thousand years within 
three or four, or even within five hundred or one thousand 
years, of 1866. An issue can not be properly joined, or 
ought not to be, until a logical issue is presented; that is, 
until the affirmant first makes out a case. 



294 DITITURNITY. 

It might then be asked if, indeed, we have no biblical 
chronology that is reliable. To this I reply, first, that I 
am under no more obligations to answer that question than 
other men are. I am not responsible for the literature of 
mankind. I have stated the case briefly, but correctly, and 
I hold that no man, even partially read, will for one mo- 
ment question any fact I have stated. But, secondly, wo 
indeed have very much very valuable biblical chronology. 
Since about the period of Abraham we have it very nearly 
correct. But the great and wide uncertainties lie before 
the flood. In that period we not only have no chronology, 
but we have no history of any sort, or next to none, and 
the lack of these things is far less important than many 
would suppose. An error of ten thousand years in the 
chronology of that period is of little if any practical dis- 
advantage; at least I do not see that it is more disadvan- 
tageous than the lack of other history. The practical in- 
conveniences of an unascertained chronology lie mostly in 
the period between the flood and Abraham. 

Fourthly. The Jews are to be restored to the possession 
of Palestine, and be converted to the true faith. Here, 
also, we have an argument which, without opposition, is 
unable to stand alone. What is the true and proper mean- 
ing of this proposition? Who are to be restored? Who 
are "the Jews," in the meaning of the proposition? So 
much has been written, and, as I conceive, erroneously 
written, on this subject, that I must beg the indulgence of 
the reader for a few minutes. Please to lay some of the 
books aside a moment, and look at a few plain, unques- 
tioned biblical facts touching this subject. 

It is said that certain Divine promises were made to and 
respecting the lineal posterity of the twelve sons of Jacob, 
which are yet to be fulfilled; and they are construed to 
mean that hereafter this lineal posterity will reinhabit Pal- 
estine, and be converted to Christianity. 

Now, the point I raise is this: Is it possible that that 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 295 

proposition can be true when looked at in connection with 
unquestioned historic facts which stand necessarily con- 
nected with it? If I can show that this can not be possible, 
then I need not argue the question. 

The proposition assumes that the lineal posterity of Jacob 
still exist in the world, visibly distinct from other races; 
that they are not Christians, but are called Jews, and so 
may be nationalized and converted as above, and settle in 
Palestine. Now, if this is in itself impossible, then we need 
have very little to do with the interpretation of prophecy re- 
specting it. 

Let us look at some unquestioned history. The sons of 
the twelve Patriarchs and their families formed a distinct 
people, and did not mix generally with other people, during 
the period of the bondage in Egypt and during the journey 
in the wilderness, the whole forming a period of about two 
hundred and sixty years. I say they did not mix gener- 
ally, but they must be understood, at the best and at the 
first, to be but half-breed descendants of Jacob and his wives; 
for Jacob's sons did not marry their sisters, but outside. 
But, after perhaps two or three generations, they mfermar- 
ried among themselves. 

But after they entered the promised land, this was no 
longer the case. It was neither their law nor their usage, 
from that time to the coming of Christ, a period of fifteen hun- 
dred years, to so intermarry as to preserve their lineal identity. 
I am aware that this is contrary to the common notion, 
but it accords strictly with the history and with the natural- 
ness and reason of the thing. The Israelitish Church was as 
exclusive, as it must needs be; but the lineal birth-line was 
not. They were to take in from without all who would come 
in, and there was to be "no difference" between these and 
those. They mixed and mingled with all who would come 
in among them. In Esther viii : 17, it is incidentally men- 
tioned that "many of the people of the land became Jews." 
To become a Jew was to identify one's self with the Church. 



296 DIUTURNITY. 

These proselytes to the Church, after the first generation, 
became mingled with the mass. Nevertheless, straight lines 
of geneology from Jacob were very preservable, and were 
actually preserved, as is well known. And it is also true 
that the Church generally, very generally, rather nomi- 
nally, were regarded the posterity of Jacob. The people 
prided themselves in that noble and ancient ancestry, and 
called themselves Jacob. There was no going out, or very 
little, but a constant coming in, for fifteen hundred years. 

Secondly. About four hundred and fifty or five hundred 
years after the occupation of Palestine, the Hebrew people 
divided into two great nationalities, each claiming to be the 
true Church and lineage, and each proselyting what they 
could. One party consisted chiefly of the large tribe of 
Judah, and were, from his name, called Jews. The other 
was the "Ten Tribes," as they are commonly called. They 
were very hostile to each other generally, but continued 
national neighbors for about two hundred and fifty-four 
years, when the Kingdom of Israel, as the ten tribes were 
called, ceased to exist. The people were carried away cap- 
tive into other countries, and have not been heard of since, 
except that ages afterward a mixed-blood portion of them 
returned and formed the Samaritan branch of the Church. 

Thirdly. Judah still retained the ancient name, but, as is 
Been, were but a mixed-blood portion of ancient Israel. 
And, in something over one hundred years, they were also 
carried away captive to a foreign country, and in about sev- 
enty years a portion, and but a small portion, of them re- 
turned to Palestine. 

Now, for one moment, let us trace the Jewish nation, to 
whom, as a whole, these ancient promises were made, through 
the history of this captivity, and see where we find them at 
the close of it. Nearly or somewhere about one-half were 
carried to Babylon, and in seventy years they returned. 
Who returned? Josephus tells us that forty-two thousand 
four hundred and sixty-two returned. Not much more than 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 297 

a mere handful of the leading families returned to Pales- 
tine. And what became of the remainder, the great body 
of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin? Like other people 
of those ages, they mixed and mingled with the people of 
earth, and, in a very few generations, lost their national 
Jewish identity forever. These promises, then, so made, as 
is supposed, to Jacob, as a whole, now follow not even this 
branch of a branch of Jacob's posterity, but those forty-two 
thousand people. 

And then, fourthly, in about five hundred and thirty-six 
years after this, a very important change took place in the 
lineal history of this now small remnant of mixed-blood 
people; and, meanwhile, the influx from without was con- 
stant, intermingling a foreign blood from without. The 
Savior came, and the Jews, as this remnant was now called, 
divided again. In this division it is not known which was 
the larger and which the smaller portion. The one portion, 
under the leadership of the Apostles, remaining firm in the 
Scriptures, receiving Jesus as the Messiah, now constituted 
the great Apostolic Church, no other person taking any 
part therein. And for about ten or twelve years, when it 
had spread into great proportions, and over vast countries, 
it was still exclusively composed of a certain portion of the 
Church which was called Jewish before the crucifixion. 
The other portion of the Church apostatized from the re- 
ligion of their Scriptures, and set up a false religion in op- 
position to Christ and the Bible. This apostate portion of 
the Church took, or rather retained, the name of Jews. 
No body cared what name they went by, and the other party 
took the name of Christians. 

It is a most egregious blunder to suppose that modern 
Jews maintained the ancient Jewish religion. Christians— 
that is, that portion of the Jewish Church which received 
Christ — maintained their ancient faith in that they main- 
tained the Christ of it. Those who repudiated Christ repu- 
diated the Old Testament religion; for, exclude Christ from 



298 DIUTTJRNITY. 

the Old Testament, and what religion have you got left? 
None. You have got some names, and history, and forms, 
and manipulations, but you have no religion left but deism. 
This is the condition of the Jews— the people so-called — - 
since the apostolic days. 

I can not afford to enlarge upon this point here ; but the 
reader may find the whole subject thoroughly elaborated in 
my work on the " Identity of Judaism and Christianity." 
But these are some of the simple, unquestioned, historic facts. 

Now, when we are told about "the Jew)s," and are desired 
to understand thereby the entire living progeny of Jacob as 
an exclusive race, we are required to do that which is 
clearly impossible. There is no such exclusive race. There 
is no such people existing. There is indeed a distinct peo- 
ple in the. world, which every body sees, called Jews, but 
they are only a small apostate remnant of a fragment of a 
portion of a very impure blood, descending in fragmentary 
lines from Jacob. 

But where is Jacob to-day? Most assuredly he does not 
exist as a distinct people. These promises, we are told, 
pertain to the descendants of Jacob. This can not be. 
Who are you going to restore? The proposition fails for 
lack of support in its own ex-parte frame-work. These 
present Jews might, for aught that I know, be restored or 
gathered together nationally, preternaturally, or supernat- 
urally, in Tennessee or in Palestine; but that would do 
nothing toward meeting these promises, for they pertain, we 
are told, to the entire lineal descendants of Jacob and none 
others. 

This is no place for prophetic exegesis, but I can not 
but suggest that the Prophets are misinterpreted. 

But to this personal second coming of Christ, in manner 
and form, as is set forth by millennarian writers, I have a 
far weightier objection than is set forth above. It repudi- 
ates the remedial system of grace we call Christianity . Is 
Christianity to be laid aside for a better system? Has it 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 299 

proved itself a failure? Does it lack the vital elements of 
perfeetability? Who are the who have tested it and dem- 
onstrated its inefficiency? Who has shorn its locks and 
infused the curdling blood of imbecility into its veins? Can 
a few dashes of rhetoric and a volume of hypercriticism 
upon a few doubtful passages of Scripture set the Bible 
against the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Is this Gospel no 
longer the Gospel of salvation? I will not believe it. It has, 
in ten thousand times ten thousand instances, proved itself 
fully capable of wielding the very power of God unto sal- 
vation. Its simple instrumentality, geared as it is, and with 
the Savior where he is, is capable of wielding infinite power, 
and of applying it to all the widely diversified wants of 
mankind, in all the varied avenues of human misfortune. 
In its own very letter it claims ability to renovate this 
world, and make it a world of sinless, happy people, where 
every man shall love his neighbor as ifimself, and his God 
supremely. It claims to be a Gospel without any earthly, 
fleshly emperorship in Jesus Christ. 

And now I hold it to be a question of some importance 
whether this remedial system of grace and recovering sal- 
vation is what it purports to be. If it is, indeed, inade- 
quate to the wants of the world, why was it instituted? To 
what valuable purpose was this atonement for sin — this sys- 
tem of faith, this vicarious suffering, this sacrifice, this pres- 
ently-working plan of salvation, which is notoriously out- 
side and irrespective of a fleshly, earthly second-coming? 
One of the best millennarian writers I have seen on the second 
coming, says, in so many words, "My Bible tells me of no 
millennium which existing processes are to bring about." 
And so we have an open and express repudiation of what 
we call the plan of salvation, or the Christian religion. 
These "existing processes" won't do! 

Whatever verbal criticism may be given to the expression 
of our Savior that his kingdom was not of this world, I 
do not hesitate to understand him to mean that his kingdom 



300 DIUTTTRNITY. 

not only teas not, but was not to be of this world. And 
from all we learn of him and his character, his office and 
his work, from his inseparable identity with the Divinity, 
from his relation to mankind, from his mediatorial position 
and enterprise, his manner of working the work of human 
redemption and restoration to the favor of Grod, of bringing 
back this revolted world to its orbit of peace and harmony 
and loyalty — from all this, and much more, we plainly see 
that his work does not call for a forum among men, for a 
position of human power, for a civil throne, for a place in 
the hustings. 

According to the whole tenor of Bible religion, from the 
primeval promise that the seed of the woman should bruise 
the head of the serpent to the last amen of the apocaliptic 
lessons, there is, in the wide world and work of mediatorial 
power and benevolence, no place for a temporal scepter, no 
use for a mere worldly theater, no sense nor reason in mere 
mundane political jurisdiction. The idea changes radically 
the entire policy of the Divine administration. The religion 
of faith in Jesus Christ becomes a nullity. We are no 
longer to have faith in his atoning merits and vicarious 
death, but in the political emperorship of the man Jesus. 
The Savior of the world, as he is, becomes a nullity. The 
Prophets were not teachers of practical religious truth. The 
Apostles were mistaken as to the essential work and office 
of Christ; and of him himself it may no longer be said that 
by the sacrifice of himself, once offered, he brought life and 
immortality to light by his Gospel. We now learn that he 
is to bring these things to light by means of a human sword, 
wielded upon an emperor's throne. 

I can not exchange the old religion for the new. No, 
nor can I entertain the proposition to do so. Being com- 
mitted to the former absolutely, I can not admit the latter 
as a competitor, nor even weigh its boastful claims to rival- 
ship with either the philosophy or the revelation of the 
Bible. Being a Christian, I have boarded this craft, and 



CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 301 

have weighed my anchor and committed myself to the sea. 
You may eulogize your long-boat, and tell me it is newer 
and better suited to some shoal waters over which we may 
have to pass. It may be painted like a life-boat, but I fear 
it is a death-boat. Candidly, I'm afraid of it. I don't 
believe there is or can be any other bark under heaven, 
among men, by which we must be borne above the shoals 
and quicksands of these waters but this Gospel, as it is now 
working. All it requires is to be worked more efficiently. 
The Savior, as he is and tvhere he is, proposes to you and 
to me, and to all who have lived before, as well as to the 
millions who shall follow us, that, by and through this 
Gospel, and without any civil rule or second coming, " about 
1866," we shall be so far elevated above mundane mis- 
fortune — the mire and clay of all possible earthly degen- 
eracy — that we shall be brought right into personal and 
happy communion with Almighty God; and that by this 
means, and this alone, the long-lost glories of Eden shall 
return to earth, and the bowers of sinless paradise shall 
adorn and embellish every plain, and every mountain, and 
every hill-side, moral, mental, and physical, in all this green 
earth. That is enough. More than this Christ himself 
could not do in any changed position, nor by any means 
conceivable to my understanding. So, I don't need these 
so-called second-coming advantages. Pardon me if I reckon 
them dear at the asking. Rich as I am in the inheritance 
of all the affluence of Christ's salvation under the Gospel, 
these little earthly things would not be greatly desirable. 
Perhaps an audience and beneficiaries among those who are 
more needy, who are not Christians, might be secured. 
Beggars, I am told, are grateful for small favors, but kings 
and priests unto God are already the proprietors of a city, 
the very foundations of which are garnished with all manner 
of precious stones; and the twelve gates are twelve pearls, 
every several gate is of one pearl, and the streets of the 
city are pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And there 



302 DIUTURNITY. 

is no temple therein (nor emperor's throne), for the Lord 
G-od Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it; and this 
city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shino 
in it; for the glory of G-od doth lighten it, and the Lamb 
is the light thereof. 



CHAPTER LXXXI. 

CONCERNING THE PHILOSOPHY AND SUFFICIENCY OF THE 
CHRISTIAN RELIGION AS IT NOW IS. 

Christianity is the religion of nature as well as of God. 
It is a complete system, adapted to all the possible wants 
arid woes of mankind. There is not a malady, there is not 
a difficulty, there is not a want nor woe nor misfortune, 
private, public, individual, social, personal, nor national, in 
all the wide world of man, that it will riot cure 'perfectly. 
It gears itself perfectly and easily, naturally and philosoph- 
ically, into all the varieties of exigence and circumstance in 
which man can possibly be found, with adequate power to 
restore him from every disability which is in any way con- 
sequent upon the acts of Adam. Let it be worked. Noth- 
ing more is needed. It is not susceptible of change nor of 
alteration except for the worse. Let man work up to it, 
and all is well. 

And it is not only adapted to individuals, but to the race. 
Its promise and undertaking is to repair the ruins of the 
fall, not partially but wholly. Its undertaking is to hand 
back the entire world to God cleansed and renovated, and 
as free from sin as when it came from his plastic hand. 

By Christianity I mean the religion written in the Bible, 
as it is and has been — the religion of Abel, of Moses, the 
Prophets, Apostles, and of all pious men who live now. 



PHILOSOPHY, ETC., OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 303 

In the progress of these workings, practically, several 
things became necessary as parts of the plan in its begin- 
ning stages. The flood and ministry of Noah; the calling 
and mission of Abraham, and of Isaac and Jacob and the 
twelve Patriarchs; the history of the Israelites in Egypt, 
in the deliverance from bondage there, their journey in the 
wilderness and occupation of Palestine ; the mission of Moses 
and his successors, the Prophets, and of John the Baptist. 
All these things dropped in as parts of the pupilage system. 
Each thing was necessary in its place, and each served its 
appropriate part; and then the manifestation of God in the 
fleshly person of Jesus, the son of Mary. All this work is 
susceptible of a clear and philosophical explanation, though 
the explanation can not be properly introduced here. 

Then God addressed himself to the world as it is. He 
did not, properly speaking, enact a system of religion; he 
revealed the system which existed in the very truth and 
philosophy of nature. Any other arrangement would have 
infringed upon primary truth and natural justice. All was 
addressed to the human constitution in all its variety, and 
to the springs of human action and motive wherever human 
action and motive exist. 

When God, in Christ, had finished his work on earth- 
that which pertained to earth and required the vestments 
of humanity — he laid aside those vestments as being no 
longer useful, and renewed his essential spirituality. The 
Apostles were instructed at the right time and in the right 
way. Miracles pertain naturally to a beginning state, and 
so they discontinued. Improvement follows improvement; 
nature works onward. When Christ retired from manhood, 
the preliminaries of salvation were all settled. Now noth- 
ing is to be done but to work the system. 

Christ did not leave the world, and go away to some other 
place, in the sense that he might come back again at some 
future time. He is here all the while, as fully, truly, and 
efficiently as when he preached on the Mount. There is no 



304 DIUTURNITY. 

going away nor coming again, as we would apply these 
terms to human persons. These words, or those from which 
they are translated, mean by going away that his mode of 
existence becomes so changed as to become invisible to us. 
And he may be said to come again as his sin-subduing power 
in the Holy Ghost may be more apparent and his name be 
more glorified among men. The Savior is not only here 
now, but here in the most appropriate and efficient manner 
possible. For the Savior to introduce himself again in a 
fleshly, human form would certainly put an end to Chris- 
tianity — the Christianity of Scripture — and introduce some- 
thing else. 

A visible second -coming would be unwise and unphil- 
osophical. The truths of religion are innate, independent, 
and immutable. And now there are but two ways in which 
truth can be brought into contact with and impress the 
mind. These two ways are by knowledge and by faith, or 
by what we see and by what we believe. And we are so 
constituted that the oftener we see a truth the less it affects 
us ; while the oftener we believe, or dwell upon a truth be- 
lieved and not seen, the more it impresses us. This is an 
important principle in human nature, and one to which re- 
ligion must needs adapt itself. Any thing, no matter how 
important, frequently seen, loses its power upon us; while 
a truth believed and often brought before the mind, in- 
creases in its power and impresses us more and more. 

And so, a Christ frequently seen would soon be no 
Christ to us. He would become commonplace and entirely 
uninteresting in a short time. While we all know that the 
Savior, in his present attitude, believed in and dwelt upon 
in the mind by faith, increases our reverence and challenges 
more and more our adoration and holy feeling. Our re- 
ligion is eminentl} 1 - philosophical. 

Christ to live in the world would be but one man among 
many millions. With many there would be great curiosity 
to get a sight of him; and then, for the most part, they 



PHILOSOPHY, ETC., OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.. 305 

would be disappointed. They saw a man, but no evidence 
of his being the Savior. The minds and hearts of men would 
be turned away from what we now call religion, and atten- 
tion would be directed to the great Man, and the religion 
of faith in God would be changed into speculations, dis- 
putes, and curiosity about mere worldly facts, their char- 
acter and effects. 

Again : This thing we call religion requires but one single 
change in the moral affairs of mankind. It requires the 
implantation of obedience in the hearts of men, and nothing 
more. But obedience is by no means the mere doing of 
such things as we are commanded to do. There is prop- 
erly no obedience but affectionate obedience; that is, the 
doing of things commanded for the sake of the command — 
from a sincere wish to obey. 

Now, how is this principle to be engendered in the soul 
and become universal by means of mere commands addressed 
to the external senses? The thing is impossible. As it is, 
the command laid nakedly upon the soul, is of such a kind 
as naturally to beget and inspire love to God through 
Christ, and assimilation to the character which Christ ex- 
hibited when he was a man of sorrows. The spiritual com- 
mands which religion now imposes, tend always to the in- 
crease of affectionate obedience. 

In this new state of things, what is to become of the doc- 
trines of religion, as we now understand them, and which 
stand out in such collossal beauty and grandeur before the 
admiration of heaven and earth? With our present knowl- 
edge of the doctrine of the Divine Sonship, how would it 
comport with a visible, fleshly Savior? Christianity comes 
to an end — is superseded by entirely new principles. Jesus 
Christ, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, has now 
permanently become a man, living in a certain city, in a 
brick house, and is a neighbor to Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. 
He holds a very high civil office, and also exercises mili- 
tary rule. He has many servants, domestics and others, some 
'26 



306 DIUTURNITT. 

of whom attend to his finances, to see that other men don't 
defraud him. We are not told how he is to get into office; 
but his government is to be monarchical, and so is to be 
unphilosophical and contrary to nature. 

Nature and the world and mankind, it is presumed, are 
to continue to be the same as now, and so this second com- 
ing must comport with practical life. Or if not — if nature 
and the constitution of man are to be radically changed and 
become something else entirely, something of which we 
have no knowledge and can understand nothing, then we 
are talking about nothing — we are not interchanging ideas. 
Any other words might as well be used as second coming; 
for in that case, addressed to the human understanding, they 
mean nothing. 

If we are talking about Jesus Christ living here like one 
of us, and being a king or emperor, why, be it so. Let us 
so understand it. The thing is conceivable, and might be 
so. I want to understand the proposition in a plain, nat- 
ural way. ' The objection I have to it is, that it is unphil- 
osophical, unreasonable, and unnatural; at war with revealed 
religion, the constitution of man, and the character of God. 
It sets the Almighty against the divinity, and overturns a 
system of religion which was calculated and intended to 
elevate man to the fulfillment of his high social destiny and 
to communion with his God. 



ATTEMPTED DEGRADATION OE JEHOVAH. 307 



CHAPTER LXXXII. 

CONCERNING THE ATTEMPTED DEGRADATION OF JEHOVAH 
TO AN EARTHLY EMPERORSHIP— A GLANCE AT ITS RA- 
TIONALE. 

This subject, if treated rationally and practically, must 
be done in plain common language. To be understood, we 
must speak what we mean. To describe and understand 
plain, natural, worldly things, we need no oriental, alle- 
gorical phraseology. If Jesus Christ is going to live again, 
in fleshly form, in this world, and be a king or emperor, 
and by his power put down other kings and empires, and 
be a civil ruler among men — if these things are going to 
come to pass now, in 1866 or 1867, or in two or three years 
at most from 1866 — then let us look at it practically, nat- 
urally, and rationally. The thing is as clearly conceivable 
as that the present Emperor of France will be superseded 
by some other certain person, or that the President of the 
United States will be superseded by some certain person, 
either by election or usurpation, or in some other way. All 
these or any other political changes are possible, so far as 
we know. It is perfectly simple and easy to understand 
that all North America, or all the continent, might become 
one government — any kind of government — or that all 
Europe and America might be consolidated in one govern- 
ment. Any national and political changes might happen. 
Then let us look practically and rationally at the civil and 
political change which the millennarian writers tell us will 
come about now, in a year or two. If natural men continue 
to live here, then, with Jesus Christ, or any one else, to be- 



308 DIUTURNITY. 

come universal emperor, the civil changes must have some 
natural aspects easily understood. 

Then the President of the United States will either be 
thrust out of office by violence or be induced to resign vol- 
untarily, or to hold his office as a provincial governor, sub- 
ordinate, in a civil and political sense, to the universal 
emperor of all the provinces; and this will also be the case 
with the emperor of France and Russia, the queen or king 
of England and Spain, etc., and also of every little petty 
government in Africa and Asia ; and China and Japan, too, 
must fall into rank and do likewise. 

And then these changes are to come about in some prac- 
tical way. We can suppose it to be published in the news- 
papers, and other channels of information, that the Lord 
Jesus has assumed man's form, and lives in New York, or 
London or Jerusalem, or somewhere else, and that he is 
recognized as a monarch about to assume civil rule in all 
the earth. Such intelligence, however attested, would scarcely 
attract attention. Not a king would listen to it nor vacate 
his throne. True or false, the announcements would be 
laughed at wherever they would attract sufficient attention. 
Those who professed to have seen and conversed with him 
would be treated like the others. 

The so-called appearance of Christ in the world is indeed 
no very new thing. It has happened many times. About 
1834, one Matthias, in Jersey City, claimed to be Christ, 
and was publicly known for several years. He spent much 
of his time in New York, and a number of first-class per- 
sons firmly believed in him; and I chanced to have such 
a private and personal knowledge of his history, that I could 
relate some most marvelous facts touching the credulity of 
some persons in regard to his claims. His private, do- 
mestic influence over some families knew no bounds. And 
it is probable the man himself may have been as much 
duped as others were. 

I allude to cases of this sort not for the purpose of dis- 



ATTEMPTED DEGRADATION OF JEHOVAH. 309 

paraging a true Christ by the production of false ones, but 
to show that a possible true one would have the same fate. 

Men are going to continue as they are, with such slow, 
gradual changes as natural means will bring about, or they 
will be moved and changed unnaturally or violently by 
miraculous force. We are to presume the former; for if 
the latter is to be the case, then none of us know what we 
are talking about. We can reason only by predicating our 
thoughts of the things around us, and by drawing natural 
inferences. And as the world now is, there would be little 
or no difference between a true and a false Christ, so far as 
his reception in the world is concerned. 

It is assumed that Jesus Christ, in fleshly form, would 
exercise immense moral and religious influence over the 
world; but this is a mere naked assumption, with neither 
reason, analogy, nor revelation to support it. He exercises 
more influence now, where he is, than he did when he was 
visible and wore the clothing of flesh. It is by no means 
true that Jehovah is under the necessity of resorting to 
merely adventitious means of using such worldly, fleshly, 
and social instruments as you and I would resort to to ef- 
fect such purposes as pertain to thedivinity. 

Indeed, there never was any such coming into the world 
on the part of the Savior as Millennarians seem to sup 
pose; indeed, it is very far from being true that Jesus 
Christ came into the world in the days of John the Baptist, 
and that he went away again. No Christian man believes 
that these words are used in any sort of literal sense. They 
are highly figurative, and represent a mere appearance, and 
by no means a reality. He is no more here or absent at one 
time than at an other. What was called the "coming" of 
Christ before, was no real coming at all, any more than it 
was a going. It was the manifesting of the Godhead to our 
senses. And this was not done for the purpose, by any 
means, of giving Christ power, or additional power in the 
world, but for very different purposes. 



310 DIUTURNXTY. 

It remains therefore to be shown, or at least there should 
he produced some testimony of some kind which would go 
to show, that the Savior would possess more moral and re- 
ligious power over the hearts and lives of men in a fleshly 
form, and as the civil ruler of the people, than in his pres- 
ent position and relation to mankind. 

This has not only not been attempted to be shown, but 
the supposition would seem to be entirely out of the ques- 
tion and even ridiculous. Look at it a moment in the 
plain, practical light of common sense. 

We are to suppose him to appear in this world, as it is, and 
to be a man, like other men, with the exception that he is 
Messiah; and that those who can be induced to do so, will 
believe that he is. Well, all this we have seen once, and 
his human appearance did not seem to give him additional 
power even in the little province of Palestine, much less in 
the world at large. Generally he was unknown ; and in 
the neighborhood of his acquaintance, some three hundred 
miles in extent, in the course of his life, he commanded 
even the respect of only a few thousand Jews. The Ro- 
mans knew him only as a by-word, and he has not even a 
place in their history. 

To suppose that Jesus Christ is to enforce order and good 
behavior, to spread and inculcate good morals, and to deepen 
religious truth in the hearts of mankind by means of a 
personal, human agency, is, in my view, to degrade him to 
a degree bordering, at least, upon sacrilege. He would live 
in some city, or town, or country, in a certain house, and 
other men and families would be his neighbors; he would 
hold what is commonly esteemed a somewhat higher office 
than Mr. Johnson or Mr. Napoleon, or these and those 
other men, many of whom at least are distinguished more 
for ignorance and wickedness than for higher and better 
qualities. It might be said or imagined, perhaps, that he 
was an emperor, and that his civil jurisdiction extended 



ATTEMPTED DEGRADATION OF JEHOVAH. 311 

beyond the Atlantic and beyond the Pacific, but really and 
practically the thing is impossible; and neither poetry, 
romance, nor rhetoric can make it otherwise. 

To look at this thing in any practical light imaginable, 
stripped of the romance and oriental verbiage in which 
it is clothed, it humiliates the name and the greatness of 
Jehovah, and brings down his crown from the high and 
pure emperorship of the universe to the dirty shambles of 
earthly contention, in a manner which, in my eye, looks 
abominable! And to what purpose? For what good? 
"Why? What advantage is there or can there be in it? 
These are questions which are not satisfactorily answered 
by the wild cry, "He's coming! he's coming!" Indeed, 
he is not "coming," in that sense, for he is here now. He 
has never been away. 

And, on the other hand, all we have from millennarians 
on the subject is vague, indefinite, impracticable, and so 
void of detailed description and naturalness that no man 
can understand and comprehend it. There is a wild sensa- 
tional cry about "coming, coming;" but this, however much 
of oriental flourish or displays of rhetoric there may be 
about it, does not meet the case. This is a reasonable and 
natural world, and the men in it are natural men, and we 
can understand only natural things when men and govern- 
ments and civil jurisdiction, and the like, are spoken of. I 
defy any man who believes in millennarianism and sec- 
ond coming, as they paint it — for they do not describe it — 
to tell me what it is that he believes, and make his belief 
Jit the existing facts of this world <now around us. 

What conceivable form and circumstance must attend the 
second coming in order that the tens and hundreds of thou- 
sands and millions of "kings, emperors, princes, presidents, 
nobles, oflicials, generals, admirals, and subalterns, taking 
them as they are, should be induced to relinquish their offi- 
ces, give up their existing governments, and submit to the 
rule of some new emperor or prince said to be Christ? 



312 DIUTURNITY. 

"What care these high-headed, ambitious officials, nine-tenths 
of them, for Christ? For a little promotion and a few 
thousand dollars, they would hurl him from his throne to- 
day, if they could. Look at these men as they are, and 
then decide these questions. To influence men, you must 
approach them through natural channels and with natural 
instruments. 

And I repeat that the supposed second-coming must he 
an introduction to this world as it now is, in its present con- 
dition. It is to meet nature as we now see it, the constitu- 
tion of man and of society as they now exist. Man, with 
such habitudes, passions, susceptibilities, desires, and feel- 
ings as we now see, is to meet and receive the Savior in 
the form of a man. And if this is the case, why, be it so; 
we must meet it and look upon it in that light. But if this 
is not so, and the system of nature and the constitution of 
things is to be changed, so that Jesus, in coming, is to meet 
some unknown and different state of mankind and of nature 
from what we now see, then what are we arguing about? 
In this supposition nothing is affirmed, nothing is denied 
on the subject. The argument is about nothing conceiva- 
ble by the human understanding. The whole subject, in 
gross and in detail, lies entirely beyond the human intellect 
as we are now constituted. In this case, to say that "Christ 
will come again in 1866, and reign humanly and visibly 
over all the earth as a civil ruler for one thousand years," 
is to utter some words that have sound, but they have no 
meaning whatever, so far as human ideas are concerned. 
Nothing is affirmed, and therefore nothing is denied. 

And to suppose that the great Godhead is again, in the 
present state of things, to visit the world in fleshly form, 
in order to take charge of the world, that he may thereby 
control its morals and improve human conduct, and implant 
the love of God and obedience to him in the hearts of men, 
is — thoughtlessly and unintentionally, it may be, but is, 
nevertheless — to degrade the -'Almighty so far as to suppose 



ATTEMPTED DEGRADATION OF JEHOVAH. 313 

him under the necessity of resorting to earthly instrumen- 
tality to accomplish his great moral purposes. Such little 
things as civil office and worldly physical rule, the issuance 
of orders here and there for this and that subaltern, may 
be a fit instrumentality for such creatures as we are, who 
belong to earth ; but, mercy on us ! who can suppose the 
great Jehovah to be under such necessities? 

And I beg to repeat that the manifestation of the Deity, 
which was made eighteen hundred years ago, was for no 
such purposes as these. Totally different objects and ends 
were subserved by it. He did not exercise nor attempt to 
exercise worldly control. He was not even highly esteemed 
among men, except among the Jewish people. And then, 
as now, there were those who thought that earthly means 
would be of great service to him, and sought to make him 
a king; but he rebuked them, and showed them that his 
kingdom was not of this world; which expression we pro- 
pose to look into in another chapter. 

Millennarians have fallen into the very same error that 
many of the Jews did. They mistook what his "coming" 
meant. They supposed that now he was absent, and when 
he would come, like a man previously absent, he would be 
capable of wielding gTeat temporal power. They were in 
gross error. A fleshly body gives him no additional power. 
He possesses "all power" without any such human instru- 
mentality as you and I would need. The idea that a civil 
office would be useful to him is in the last degree humiliat- 
ing and degrading. 

Moreover, there are four different things in the providence 
of G-od spoken of in Scripture language, as a coming, or day 
of coming, and other similar expressions. (See 2 Sam. xxii: 
10-12; Ps. xcvii: 2-5; Isa. xix: 1.) Extraordinary dis- 
plays of Divine power are called the coming, the appearing, 
the presence of God. 

Second. He will come to destroy the Man of Sin. (See 2 
Thess. ii; 8.) 

27 • 



314 DIUTUKNITY. 

Third. He will come to release his people from their 
present trials. (1 Cor. i: 8; Phil, i: 6; 1 Thess. v: 23, 
and other places.) 

Fourth. In Matthew xvi : 27, and elsewhere, his coming 
is spoken of to judge the world in righteousness. This 
last refers to the^great assize, or general judgment; but, 
let it be carefully marked, this is never spoken of as at 
hand, or a thing near, but as something pertaining to the 
future providence of God. 

In the first of these cases, the coming relates simply to 
the outpourings of his grace in the revivals of religious 
power among men. The second class of cases indicate his 
universal antagonism with the great master-spirit of evil, 
and that he will so come as to overpower his adversary. 
Thirdly, he will so come, or so manifest himself among his 
pious followers, that they may be shielded and protected by 
him. And the fourth class of cases, where he is spoken 
of as coming, relates to the judgment-day, upon which sub- 
ject we will speak in another chapter. 

This "coming" is, therefore, all within the regular pre- 
cincts of practical, human, earthly Christianity, just as we 
see it progressing now, except the fourth class of cases, 
which relates to the closing scenes of our regular religious 
system. And let it be repeated, and let the examination be 
made, this last class of eases, where the Savior is spoken of 
as coming, never indicates, in any form of expression, any 
thing near at hand, but only generally, as the final issue of 
religion. 



Christ's kingdom not or this world. 315 



CHAPTER LXXXIII. 
"my kingdom is not of this world." 

When Jesus was before Pilate, undergoing an examination 
preparatory to his more public trial, Pilate explained to him 
particularly the nature of the charges alleged against him — 
one of which was in the nature of what we would call treason 
against the government of Caesar; that is, that he was pre- 
paring to assume civil control of the Jews, in some form and 
to some extent. This the Savior denied unqualifiedly, and the 
brief synoptic reply which we have in our history, is in the 
words at the head of this chapter: My kingdom is not of 
this world; and he explained, further, that if his kingdom 
were of this world, then the Jews would fight for him. 
Pilate did not understand how it was that he could speak 
of the Jews as his people or subjects, or, as in our trans- 
lation, his servants, and of his own kingdom, and still 
he exercise no official or kingly control over them; and 
Jesus explained himself further, that he exercised authority 
over them, it was very true, but this was in no sense civil 
authority, exercised in their mode, but a control over their 
hearts and consciences, exercised in a very different manner. 

This explanation was perfectly satisfactory to the Roman 
official, for he so declared himself immediately afterward. 
As he well understood the matter, neither he nor his gov- 
ernment had any concern about this kind of government, or 
"kingdom," of which Jesus spoke, whether he did truly ex- 
ercise it or not, since it was wholly different from the gov- 
ernment of civil rulers; that is, that if it was any govern- 
ment at all, it was exercised in some form or mode of which 
he had no conception, and, therefore, about which he had 



316 DITTTURNITY. 

no concern. The Savior explained the difference, or might 
have explained the difference, between his mode of govern- 
ing and that of Caesar, as far and as fully as the Roman 
could understand it; at least he explained it sufficiently for 
the purposes then in hand. 

There are two kinds of government, and hut two, which 
can be exercised over man as he is now constituted. The 
one controls his muscles, and the other his heart. The 
former is generally called civil, or ecclesiastical, and the 
latter moral. They are in their nature distinct, and can not 
be exercised conjointly. The one is adapted to human and 
the other to divine hands. It is true, that in some forms of 
human government, we may recommend moral thoughts and 
feelings, but we can not enforce any law respecting them. 
In the one ease, the infringement of the law is ascertained 
by testimony as to external actions; in the other, there is 
no testimony — the arbitrament is between the naked soul 
and the omniscient Lawgiver. In order to the exercise of 
the functions of the former government, a human person- 
ality and faculties, and an earthly residence, are necessary; 
but in the latter, all such instruments are utterly useless. 

This former, or human government, in the feebleness of 
language, is, perhaps, properly enough called a government ; 
but, as compared with the latter, it is next to no govern- 
ment at all, and scarcely deserves the name, or at least it 
is as much inferior to the former as a man's flesh is in- 
ferior to his soul or to himself, or as man is inferior to God. 

The Divine form of government is in all respects essen- 
tially invisible. Its seat of -power, its instrumentality, accu- 
sations, trial, convictions, and punishments are all completely 
invisible. 

And- it is absolutely perfect, complete, and incapable of 
being strengthened, improved, or of being rendered more 
efficient by any physical or visible instrumentality, or, in- 
deed, in any way. A human position, office, or instrumen- 
tality of any kind, would be as useless in the hands of the 



Christ's kingdom not of this world. 317 

Almighty, for any purposes of government, as they would 
be for purposes of improvement in holiness, in happiness, 
in power, providence, or any other things, aims, or ends, 
either objective or subjective. 

It would be no more absurd to suppose that a farm, or a 
house, or money would be useful to the Almighty for sus- 
tenance, than that a position on earth would be beneficial 
to him for purposes of government. A carriage might be 
useful to you or me for transportation, or medicine for 
health, or a book to gain knowledge, or arguments to con- 
vince the judgment, or faith to render truth useful ; but it 
looks like sacrilege, or, at least, a great want of wisdom, to 
suppose that any such human instrumentalities, or any 
earthly position or thing, could be useful to the Almighty 
in carrying forward any of his operations. 

Now, Pilate thought that because he held office he was a 
governor, and that Jesus was not; and so millennarians 
seem to think that if Christ were only upon earth, and in 
as good a position as Caesar or the Russian Czar, that it 
would afford him great governmental power and facilities. 
They are both mistaken. When Jesus talked with Pilate, 
he possessed, then and there, ten thousand times multiplied, 
more governmental power than both Pilate and his master. 
Even David, as he was once situated, could not go in the 
king's armor. It would have been indispensable to an- 
other, but was worthless to him. 

Jesus might have replied to Pilate, "Yes, I am a king, 
and both you and your master are my vassals. You are 
under my immediate control this moment. You hold your 
places only by my sufferance." But Pilate, being in this 
respect a millennarian, he could not conceive how Jesus 
could exercise authority without a palace to live in, and 
purple robes of office, and a metallic scepter, and the ac- 
knowledgments and obsequious recognition of the multitude. 

"My kingdom is not of this world." Literally, and in the 
sense millennarians seem to understand this expression, it is 



318 DIUTURNITY. 

not true, and therefore must not be so understood. Christ's 
kingdom, the proper place of his rightful rule, the subjects 
of his government, and the theater of his authority are all 
of and in this world. His authority is exercised simulta- 
neously in and over every part of this world. Every man 
and every thing in it is directly and immediately subject to 
his government at the present time and at all times. His 
kingdom is fully, practically, essentially, and, in the largest 
sense, of this world. The true meaning of the expression 
is, that his governmental authority is not exercised by means 
of earthly instrumentality. He does not govern in that 
mode, but in another; and this other manner of governing 
is more efficient, more potent, more available every-where, 
ten thousand times multiplied, than this little toy-like thing 
we call government, which issues from a merely earthly po- 
sition in order to its exercise. 

And has Jesus Christ lost his power to use supernatural 
instrumentality? Is he reduced to the necessity of seeking 
an earthly position in order to make his power available? 
What has happened to the Almighty that he can no longer 
proclaim, in the words of high commanding authority, far, 
far above fleshly rule, My kingdom is not of this world? 

No, no, nothing has happened to the Almighty. His 
government is the same now it always was — a spiritual gov- 
ernment of inconceivable efficiency and power. Its juris- 
diction is unbounded. It is here now in all its Divine 
efficiency. A visible, worldly position would have no more 
tendency to give it force or render it practically available 
among men, than a few dollars would increase his wealth 
or a few earthly trifles add to his personal comforts. 

The idea of a visible, worldly, physical control over this 
world, or the people thereof, by the great God, is absolutely 
preposterous. It ignores all his supernatural greatness and 
degrades him to the level of his own creatures. His king- 
dom is not of this world. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 319 



CHAPTER LXXXIV. 

"THIS SAME JESUS WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO 
HEAVEN,. SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE 
SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN." — ACTS I: 11. 

This is regarded the great proof-text of millennarian writ- 
ers. It shows, we are told, that as Jesus left the world on 
Mount Olivet, eighteen hundred years ago, and ascended into 
heaven, so, at some future time, he will return to it; and 
that the return will he in like manner as was the departure. 
A lfteral construction of this text' is peremptorily insisted 
on; and it is claimed it proves the second-coming beyond 
question, except as to the time. 

The history tells us that the Apostles were with Jesus 
at the Mount of Olives, near to Jerusalem, about forty days 
after the death and resurrection, and then what is com- 
monly called his ascension took place in their presence. He 
was supernaturally lifted up from the ground and moved 
off out of their sight, and a cloud overshadowed him, so that 
he was no longer seen ; and the disciples then saw two an- 
gels, or two men in white, standing by, who spoke to them 
in regard to the disappearance of the Lord, and closed their 
speech in the language above, that Christ would come again 
in like manner as he had departed. 

Now, the question is, what are we to understand practi- 
cally and literally in regard to this transaction? What 
really and truly happened, and what was said by the di- 
vine messengers, prophetically, as to the future? 

These questions, in this practical sense, have elicited va- 
rious conjectures from commentators and critics. Indeed, 
not many have attempted to s.tand square up to them, and 



320 DIUTURNXTT. 

venture a plain, rational opinion. For my own part, i 
frankly confess, I would not like to risk my own conscien-e, 
and what little reputation I may chance to have, in an at- 
tempt to give these three or four verses an affirmative ex- 
plication, and the occurences themselves a sensible rationale. 

There are those who find no difficulty whatever in giving 
a clear, sensible exegesis of any Scripture, especially those 
where most scholars find the most difficulty, and they won- 
der that any men are found so dull as not to see the prac- 
tical meaning clearly and beyond question. 

It is well known to all prudent men, and generally it is 
not disputed by any, that there are numerous passages of 
Scripture of a descriptive, affirmative, or historic character, 
where the occurrence spoken of was cf such a nature that 
it can not possibly be comprehended and well understood 
by man with his present endowments, especially in the pres- 
ent early condition of the world. Human language can not 
describe the thing, of course, because the human mind can not 
grasp it. Language is employed only to convey ideas after 
they are formed ; and if the idea be but partially or faintly 
formed, the language must necessarily be correspondingly 
defective. The passage before us, as I think, alludes to one 
of those transactions. The real things which happened can 
not be fully understood, because we can but very faintly 
and partially discern some spiritual things. 

But if we can not understand and fully comprehend the 
transactions of that occasion, we can, nevertheless, under- 
stand some things about or in relation to it. If, for lack 
of natural faculty or otherwise, we can not fully compre- 
hend all that this language does mean, we can, I think, un- 
derstand and determine some things it does not mean. 

And here, again, we must be reminded of an axiom in 
the elucidations of religious truth which must be univer- 
sally assented to. It is one of the primary truths of relig- 
ion; and when we lay down an axiom, let us not depart 
from it for mere convenience' sake nor for any other sake. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 321 

The divinity, visible or invisible, embodied in the flesh 
of Jesus, or existing in any other mode, never does come 
to this world nor go away from it. He does not go from 
place to place, like a man or another animal. He is abso- 
lutely and universally omnipresent. He is present at any one 
time and place in the same way and to the same extent as 
he is at any other time or any other place. Jesus, the man, 
may go to Bethany or to Jerusalem, but Christ, the Logos, 
is always in all places. 

Now, if the reader can not fully and rationally compre- 
hend that idea, perhaps it may be for the same reason that 
I can not understand it. We both know, however, that it 
is true, and some of us know that truth is not always de- 
pendent upon our comprehension of it. 

Then it is not literally true that Christ, locally and to- 
pographically, went up or down, or east or west, from the 
Mount of Olives, nor from any other place, on the occasion 
under consideration, nor on any other. Neither revelation 
nor reason can, for one moment, tolerate such an idea. 

What was really done, I repeat, is not, I think, given fully 
to us to know. The appearances; to human sense, and the 
reality, too, so far as human sense can comprehend it, are, 
I grant, about as well stated in the text as language could 
conveniently do it; but when a man tells us that this lan- 
guage of Sacred History "must be understood literally," he 
states that which both he and every one else knows to be 
impossible. 

I believe in many things which I do not understand. I 
believe in animal and vegetable growth and procreation, 
though I can not understand them; I believe that water 
will run down hill when unobstructed, though I can not 
understand it; and I believe in the transmission of ideas 
by various means — in seeing, in thinking, and many other 
moral, mental, and physical phenomena which I can not 
possibly understand. And so I believe in God's existence, 
though I can not possibly conceive of any mode in which 



322 DIITTURNITY. 

he can exist. T believe, also, in what we commonly call the 
resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ, though I 
think these words are about as beggarly as are my ideas of 
them in their powers of description. But I do not believe 
that the Christ — the Logos Jehovah — ever went any-where^ 
as we would apply that verb to the actions of an animal. 

They tell us he "went up." Then, the Mount of Olivet 
being in the eastern hemisphere, he went in the direction 
we, in the West, would call down. He changed his mode 
of existence, either absolutely or in its relation to human 
vision; and he did this in some mode or manner, or under 
some appearances, incomprehensible to you and me, even if 
we were told it by an angel. 

Great stress is laid on the words, "in like manner." This, 
we are told, means that he will come down precisely in the 
same way and circumstances as he went up. Every thing is 
to be "in like manner" in all respects. But, first, I can 
not see that this is possible ; and, secondly, it would totally 
defeat the arguments of the second-coming writers. 

"In like manner" in what respects, I inquire? I can 
conceive that, regarding him as a mere human person — as 
Jesus, but not as Christ — he might return with the same 
body, but he could scarcely reappear to the same persons, 
nor in the same general circumstances ; or, if he were to do 
so, it might not be a desirable spectacle for the world to 
behold. The body which Jesus then had, though in itself 
pure, was, nevertheless, an abused, persecuted, and crucified 
body, and possessed of very little worldly honor. 

It seems to me, therefore, though perhaps I ought not 
to judge in the matter, that if these favorite words, "in like 
manner" were properly analyzed and given their logical 
meaning and no more, that they would prove a cumbrous 
disadvantage to the second-coming doctrines. They prove 
too much, and therefore, the logicians tell us, they prove 
nothing. 

If men would not be so hasty — would suffer the world to 



SUPPOSED HUMAN ADVANCEMENT 323 

live on and not incite each other to infanticide upon it, it 
would grow, develop its resources, and put on the ruddy 
budding of manly boyhood in due time, and in its maturer 
years present a state of things in which the text before us 
would be more easily construed, perhaps, than in the twi- 
light in which we now view it. 

Jesus Christ has conquered death and the grave; he has 
led even captivity itself a captive; he ascended up on high, 
and will "return" — appear — be powerfully and wonderfully 
among us, and judge the world in righteousness, and be the 
acknowledged King of kings and Lord of lords. 

And if it be said that this is figurative language, and its 
meaning can not be clearly and logically conceived, and 
that it can not be literally true, I reply, it is the best lan- 
guage I have, and if it be not literally true, it is because 
it has far more than literal truth in it. 



CHAPTER LIXXV. 

HUMAN ADVANCEMENT MUST BE SUPPOSED TO BE EQUAL, 
FINALLY, TO THE NATURAL CAPACITY FOR IT. 

Capacity proves design; and capacity unfilled, unused 
finally, is evidence of error. A child, or the most ignorant 
person, has the natural capacity of the educated man ; and 
if all persons were to die in childhood or illiterate, and the 
world close its career in this way, it would present a most 
disgraceful failure, because a vast provision was made for 
nothing. 

Man was created, and for a time lived sinless. This is 
his normal condition. But he had, nevertheless, a liability 
to sin; otherwise, moral free agency would be impossible. 
He did violate God's law, and this irregularity was so great 



324 DIUTURNITY. 

that it developed in man's character the natural antagonism 
between holiness and unholiness; and it formed in him a 
very large ingredient in the stream of inheritance that de- 
scended from him. This difference is the sad patrimony 
which Adam left to his children. And now that which was 
primarily only a liability to sin became a tendency. The 
distinction is important. This tendency to sin is universal, 
and must continue so long as man continues to be the pos- 
terity of Adam. 

But even a tendency to sin, however strong, is not sin. 
No man is to blame for possessing it; he is to blame only 
for not resisting the tendency, since Christ offers him suf- 
ficient assistance to enable him to do so. 

Now, in these circumstances, what was the mission of 
Christ to the world? What did he come to do? Did he 
come to mitigate a few sorrows, to give a few lucid explana- 
tions in the science of religion, to restore a few dead people 
to life, and, finally, to effect the salvation of one in a thou- 
sand of the human family? This supposition would be to 
take a very narrow view of the Divine plans. The pro- 
gramme of the Emmanuel was much larger, deeper, more 
extensive. 

Christ came to restore the world, not partially but fully; 
he came to cure the world, not partially but fully; he 
came to rebuild the ruins of Eden, not partially but fully. 
He intended complete success; and to this end he set on 
foot the machinery we call Christianity, intending to work 
it, as he first geared it, until he should accomplish the work, 
and then hand the world back to his Father as good as it 
was before. 

Still, man could not be restored to a mere liability to sin 
only from philosophic necessity. He must even have the ten- 
dency also. But his surrounding circumstances, making up 
his social, moral, and religious condition, could be rendered 
so favorable that this tendency would be so overcome that 
it would be merely nominal, and, practically, sin would not 



SUPPOSED HUMAN ADVANCEMENT. 325 

happen. This is clearly possible without disturbing any of 
the laws of nature or the constitution of man. 

And this 'further point must be kept clearly in view. In 
all that G-od has done or contemplated in and about the res- 
toration of man to the favor of his Maker, he has not, in 
one jot or tittle, disturbed or changed his moral, mental, or 
physical constitution, his susceptibility to impressions from 
without the laws of progress, nor the springs of human ac- 
tion. But, leaving these all where they were, he adapted 
the restoring instrumentality to them as he found them. 
Every thing, therefore, which belongs to the renovating 
process is, and must be, eminently philosophical and nat- 
ural. The work could not be done in a day, nor a century, 
nor a few centuries. It was a work of time; how much 
time no man can tell. The process has been going on six 
or seven thousand years, and we plainly see that a little has 
been done, but, comparatively, only a little. Miracles are 
not to be looked for now. They naturally belong to the 
very opening processes. 

And now we proceed to inquire how far man is capable 
of improvement. What is his capacity for advancement in 
his moral, mental, and physical endowments? Is he chained 
to a position, or what is his susceptibility of advancement? 

We can imagine a Pitcairn's Island, the inhabitants of 
which are but a remove from savage life, but possessed of 
a Bible and one or two sensible persons. At the end of 
fifty years, we visit them and find things very much im- 
proved, and at the end of one hundred years, we find them 
in a state of high advancement in every thing. The arts 
and sciences are in a most advanced and flourishing condi- 
tion. There is a church in every little neighborhood, and 
three-fourths of the people" are solidly pious, and literature 
and philosophy are very highly cultivated. And at the end 
of another hundred years, and another, and another thousand 
years, we again and again visit the island, and every thing 
is wonderfully advanced; but I know not how to describe 



326 DIUTURNITT. 

the condition of the people now, for I have no comparisons. 
Every man was a scholar and every house a house of prayer, 
and many of the children were what we would now call 
well-informed, and young men of twenty would compare 
well with our very best statesmen and theologians. 

One can easily imagine that children born in such cir- 
cumstances, of such parents, generation after generation, 
would be a noble stock. Longevity would be greatly in- 
creased. The face of the country would present the ap- 
pearance of elysian richness and beauty far surpassing our 
present means of description. Every thing seemed to co- 
operate with every thing else in rendering the face of nature 
rich, beautiful, and useful. 

Without doing the least violence to nature, all this and 
much more may be supposed ; and we may suppose, too, 
that this island colony is a miniature picture of this world, 
in which the periods and scale in other respects are enlarged 
ten or a hundred-fold. 

In thus imagining very long periods of time, we must 
remember that our ideas of periodicity are cramped into 
liliputian dimensions by the mere adventitious circumstance 
that our lives are restricted to the brief period of one hun- 
dred years or less. But we are inquiring into the capacity 
of man for improvement — for upward progress. In this in- 
quiry, our experience furnishes us but little assistance; but 
it must be answered. Where is the point beyond which 
improvement can not go? 

I do not intimate that earthly improvement will be inter- 
minable by any means ; but I do hold that both reason and 
revelation testify that it will, at least, extend so far as to ex- 
tirpate the last vestige of disadvantage resulting from the 
sin of Adam. The theater of the FALL is the theater of the 
restoration, and the restoration must be completed here. 

Two things are pointed out in Scripture unmistakably. 
First, the means set on foot for the restoration is the Chris- 
tian religion; second, that that system, as it is now work- 



SUPPOSED HUMAN ADVANCEMENT. 327 

ing, is calculated and intended to work improvement until 
the world shall become sinless. 

Then the world will yet he what it would have been if Adam 
had not sinned. Every thing may not be restored to the 
same form, but every thing will be restored virtually to the 
same condition. Every thing unfortunate or disagreeable 
in the consequences of Adam's sin will be done away. I 
include the evil that is in every thing — natural death, moral 
corruption, labor — all, all. Sin produced disease ; but the 
patient will recover, and will stand upon the earth well — 
entirely well. Christ came to restore the irregularity and 
to place the world back in its former orbit. 

Did sin produce death? Death is a mode or means by 
which we are changed from one form of existence to another. 
This form of transfer may continue, and yet its outward cir- 
cumstances may be so meliorated as to take away all that is 
disagreeable in it. 

The common notion is, that before the sin of Adam every 
living animal continued to live, and that the sin had the 
effect of changing the law of nature, and so, afterward, all 
animals, man included, die nearly as fast as they come into 
the world. But this reading of the Scriptures is most cer- 
tainly incorrect. Geology testifier, beyond the possibility of 
error, that before that time there were untold millions of 
deaths of both animals and vegetables. Death is a primary 
law of nature, pertaining to this globe at least. The Scrip- 
ture is misunderstood. There can not certainly be a dif- 
ference of opinion among men of reading as to the testimony 
of geology on this point; and so this stiff, mechanical mode 
of construing the Scriptures must give way to amethod of 
exegesis more rational and more natural. 

What is called death is not the change of this mode of 
existence for the next, but the manner Of the change. Death 
is an infliction. And the change itself, so far from being 
necessarily an infliction, may be very easily supposed to be 
the most blessed, cheerful, and desirable thing imaginable, 



328 DIUTURNITT. 

Strip it of all pain, fear, and apprehension as to the future, 
and let there be a sweet and sure anticipation of great and 
ineffable good, and where is the infliction? It is easy to see 
that if you take away the external circumstances which now 
make death seem a misfortune, that it might be as desirable 
to all as the bestowal of a fortune would now be to any. 

But if there were no death at all — that is, no change at 
all — but this fleshly, organic mode of existence were to con- 
tinue changelessly, then there must necessarily be a great 
monotony of existence to a very few, which, on the whole, 
would be any thing but a desirable benevolence to the entire 
race of mankind. 

The law of death to all — that is, the law of change from 
this mode of existence to the spiritual mode — is one of the 
most benevolent arrangements of our benevolent Creator 
conceivable; but the death denounced against us as a pen- 
alty is the connecting with this change those things which 
make death sorrowful. I repeat, therefore, that death is 
not the change from this life to the next, but the manner 
of the change. 

" A more unimportant question, in this connection, could 
scarcely be suggested than the length of time necessary for 
the restoration of sinless peace to the world. Periods of 
time are merely relative and not positive. A million of 
years is a very long time in some relations, but in others a 
very short time. 

Both nature and revelation, therefore, unite in testifying 
to the complete renovation of this world under the Christian 
system which is now working. This, then, will be a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein will dwell righteousness. 
The capacity for improvement in both man and the world 
will be completely met and answered by Christianity and its 
natural accompaniments, in the course of the current history 
of religion, without any radical change in the plan of oper- 
ation. 

In another state of existence man may have other and 



ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 329 

additional capacity for improvement to be met there. That 
is another question. 

The Gospel, as it is, is the grand and universal elixir of 
life. There is balm in Gilead — not in some imaginary and 
unknown Gilead to come up in some changed future, but in 
our own mountains. Man will be cured. The year of ju- 
bilee will be celebrated here. With our own eyes, man shall 
see the distant headlands, and then survey the broad plains 
of the land of Beulah, and with our ears we shall yet hear 
the very bells of the city of God as they chime the jubilee 
of universal redemption. 



CHAPTER LXXXYI. 

ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 

A few observations, and not many, are needed here on 
the interpretation of prophecy. We have no little of mis- 
teaching on the subject. No Scriptures are so abused as 
the prophecies. They are made to sustain almost every 
hypothesis, and prove almost every doctrine, true or false. 
Indeed, in the way they are frequently used — to take an 
expression or sentence at a time, independently, construing 
the allegorical words to mean what they oftentimes seem 
likely to mean or somewhat resemble — almost any fancied 
notion in the future, may be seemingly proven by them, and 
with, oftentimes, a fair-looking plausibility. 

In the first place, future events — things which may and 
do happen — are not generally intended to be predicted or 
foreseen by means of prophecy. Prophecy is for a higher, 
nobler, and more useful purpose. To foresee events might 
answer the demands of a morbid curiosity, but could, per- 
haps, never be of any religious advantage to any one. 
28 



330 DIUTURNITY. 

The chief, if not the sole end of prophecy, properly 
so called, is to demonstrate the truth of revealed religion 
theoretically; that is, to irreligious persons. To religious 
persons this is .not needed. They have a higher demon- 
stration; viz., consciousness. Prophecy foretells, or, more 
properly, forewrites, events. But it does not, hence, hy any 
means follow, nor is it true, that prophecy enables one to 
foresee events or to foreknow them. 

Although events are forewritten in prophecy, they are 
always so, allegorically or otherwise, highly figuratively writ- 
ten, that particular events can not generally be foreseen; 
but when the event happens, then it becomes clearly iden- 
tical with the writing, and the meaning, before obscure and 
uncertain, now becomes plain and unmistakable. 

Take, for instance, one of the plainest and best-known 
historic subjects of prophecy — the destruction of the city of 
Jerusalem. It is now agreed, on all hands, that this was 
written of and minutely described, in many particulars, long 
before it happened. But before the event, the descriptions 
were obscure and uncertain. An intelligent reader could 
see some wonderful catastrophe away in the distance, but 
the writing could be understood only in a very general 
way. But when the city was destroyed, then all was seen 
unmistakably, and the descriptions were apparent. 

The death of Christ was forewritten by Isaiah with most 
wonderful accuracy and perspicuity; and yet the descrip- 
tions were, much of them, in such highly figurative language 
that no one could clearly foresee the events. A very general 
idea was all that could be known. Indeed, as to events, 
particulars, the things to happen, little or nothing was or 
could be foreknown. The design of the prophecies was not 
to inform people of what was in the future. Some of these 
prophecies were very obscure and quite unintelligible; but 
when the event happened, then all became plain and palpable. 

And so the coming of Christ was abundantly forewritten 
by several prophets, and very much of his history was par- 



ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 331 

ticularly mentioned in very minute detail; and, yet before 
the event happened, nothing could be gathered but very 
general knowledge. It was not known how or in what man- 
ner the Savior would manifest himself to mankind and favor 
his people; it was not known whether he would be visible to 
natural sight; whether he would be recognized or distin- 
guished from other men; whether he would be a civil ruler 
or would exert his influence in some other way. Indeed, 
nothing in detail was known. It was known in general 
terms that he would, in some way, bring great benefits on 
the Church. Beyond this, much was conjecture. 

And yet the Messianic prophecies were, in this respect, 
strikingly peculiar and very different from all others in all 
revelation. They portrayed details and particular facts in 
the prospect far more intelligibly than any other. Indeed, 
for reasons which can scarcely fail to be apparent, they 
were the only prophecies ever intended to enable men to 
foresee particular events with approaching distinctness. The 
events of prophecy, with this great and remarkable excep- 
tion, are seen afterward, not beforehand. 

And so it is, that all looking forward to pry into the 
meaning of prophecy, has, with this exception, proved so 
many failures, from the days of Christ, at least, to the pres- 
ent time. When the event is seen, then the identity with 
the writing is seen. 

And just so in regard to what is called his coming again, 
or his appearing the second time. What visible, sensible 
manifestations it may take on; how the events attending it 
may resemble any thing in human experience; how the 
Church, in the future ages, may be exalted and benefitted 
by the Savior, it is worse than folly for us to attempt to 
conjecture. There are some few things about it we may 
regard as certain. We may very safely conclude that no 
sudden or violent eruptions in Grod's providence are going to 
occur. Second. The steady, regular, foward moving laws of 
God now in existence will continue. Third. Knowledge and 



332 DIUTURNITY. 

religion, with all their natural concomitants, will continue 
to increase. Fourth. Grod, in Christ, will continue to be vic- 
torious over all opposition, ad infinitum. Fifth. The theater 
of the curse will be the theater of its cure. Sixth. The means 
and instrumentality first set on foot will prove sufficient, 
and will continue to work as it was first put to work. 

This much we learn both from revelation and from rea- 
son; but beyond these general features of the future, all 
is conjecture and speculation, and must end in disappoint- 
ment. 

There are certain rules for the interpretation or reading 
of the prophetic writings, which have been, with great care 
and labor, evolved into hermeneutics, and which, with very 
little or no variation, are uniformly relied upon by all bib- 
lical scholars, saving and excepting, always, those writers 
who have something in hand to prove, or who interpret for 
the purpose of proving, some favorite hypothesis. A few 
of these rules may, with profit, be copied, in whole or in 
part, in this place. I copy from "Home's Introduction," 
which is generally if not uniformly regarded the best work 
on this subject extant. For further information, I refer the 
reader to that very profound work. 

"I. As not any prophecy of Scripture is of self-inter- 
pretation (2 Pet. i: 20), or is its own interpreter, the sense 
of the prophecy is to be sought in the events of the world, 
and in the harmony of the prophetic writings, rather than 
in the bare terms of any single prediction." 

On this point we have quoted from the very learned and 
sober-minded Bishop Horsley: "Not any prophecy of Scrip- 
ture is of self-interpretation, or is its own interpreter, be- 
cause the Scripture prophecies are not detached predictions 
of separate, independent events, but are united in a regular 
and entire system, all terminating in one great object — the 
promulgation of the Gospel and the complete establishment 
of the Messiah's kingdom." 

"II. In order to understand the prophet, great attention 



ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 333 

should be paid to the prophetic style, which is highly fig- 
urative, and particularly abounds in metaphorical and hy- 
perbolical expressions." 

'IV. Particular names are often put by the prophets for 
more general ones, in order that they may place the thing 
represented, as it were, before the eyes of their hearers; 
but in such passages they are not to be understood literally." 

"VI. The order of time is not always to be looked for 
in the prophetic writings, for they frequently resume topics 
of which they have formerly treated, after other subjects 
have intervened, and again discuss them." 

"VII. The prophets often change both persons and 
tenses, sometimes speaking of their own persons, at other 
times representing Grod, his people, or their enemies, as re- 
spectively speaking, and without noticing the change of 
persons; sometimes taking things past or present for things 
future, to denote the certainty of the events." 

These and many more rules which I have omitted are 
explained and illustrated very plainly and satisfactorily. If 
the reader will turn to them, which, in the edition mostly 
in use, he will find to begin at page 388 of volume I, or 
by the subject, from the index, in any edition, and read 
but a few pages, he will see the utter fallacy and useless- 
ness of much recent speculation which we have put forth 
on this subject. He will see that men, who ought to know 
better, and perhaps do know better, either to make books 
salable, or for some other purpose, interpret the prophetic 
writings in utter disregard of well-established biblical her- 
meneutics. 

If the reader has not "Home's Introduction" at hand, I 
beg him to turn to any other respectable author on biblical 
criticism, of which there are many in all theological libraries. 

But if it be not intended, and therefore we can not de- 
termine beforehand, what many of the prophetic predictions 
do mean, we can nevertheless ascertain with certainty some 
things they do not mean. 



334 DIUTURNITY. 

We must not so interpret Scripture as to make it ran 
the Christian religion off the track, or despoil it of any of 
its practical attributes or natural aspects. It is the religion 
of the race. It is not the religion of some particular "dis- 
pensation," whatever may be meant by that word of very 
wide-spread meaning, but the religion of man as such. Its 
worship was the worship of Adam from the very first, and 
will be that of his posterity to the very last. Its aspects 
of recovery were not actually applicable before the FALL, 
nor will they be after the restoration; but so long as 
man continues an inhabitant of this world, Christianity, in 
all its aspects, will be his religion. 

We must so read the Scriptures as to make our religion 
something else than a ministered religion. It will continue 
to be a religion of preaching, of prayer, of singing, of gath- 
ering ourselves together, of exhortation, of communion, of 
faith. The Christian will never walk upon this earth by sight. 

We must not so read the Scriptures as to make our relig- 
ion something else than a ministered religion. It will continue 
upon any other principles than this : that he shall believe 
in his heart that God hath raised him from the dead. To 
see with his eyes that he holds the highest civil office in 
the realm will not do. He now sustains the highest, the 
holiest, the nearest, the most efficient, and most endearing 
relation to the sinner that is practicable. Indeed, he sus- 
tains the only relation compatible with the very necessities 
of the case. Do not make prophecies dethrone him from a 
position infinitely high and place him in one infinitely low. 

Nor is there any thing in Scripture that I know of that 
savors of, or remotely contemplates any sudden change in the 
onward movings of God's providence. That the greatest, 
the most important, most inconceivable alterations will take 
place in the condition of the world — alterations for the bet- 
ter — is apparent from the whole tenor of Scripture and the 
very idea of Christianity. This has been somewhat elab- 
orately argued in the foregoing chapters; but these changes 
will come, like the soft, silent, and imperceptible openings 



ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 335 

of the morning. The broad sunlight of high noon succeeds 
to the deep darkness of night; but flash and crash, and 
lightning and thunder, are not at all necessary to such 
change. Rivers generally do not have a Niagara. Life 
flows without any sudden jumps or convulsions. Sufficient 
time is allotted to every thing. 

Nature is not in a bustle, needs no tumult, noise, nor 
agitation; but in her own grand round of diuturnal ages, 
she shall answer the demands of reason and vindicate the 
attributes of God. 

An excellent writer says: "We know, from the joint tes- 
timony of Scripture and geology, that another change is to 
pass over the world, to prepare it for inhabitants far more 
elevated than those now living upon it, and in possession of 
perfect holiness and happiness." 

Just so. And he might have added that that change is 
gradually approaching every day and will not cease, and that 
those inhabitants will be the natural sons and daughters of 
those now living in the later ages of this present life and this 
world, and that their perfect holiness and happiness will be 
the natural fruits of Christianity enjoyed in this present life. 
This world is to be improved. 

It is one of the wisest and most merciful arrangements of 
Providence that the future is hid from us. It is perhaps 
true that, with the single exception of the advent of Jesus 
Christ, the events of the future are never revealed to us for 
the mere purpose of giving us information ahead. Prophecy, 
as has been shown, is for a different and far higher purpose. 
It is true that prophecy, in the nature of the thing, gives us 
some information as to the future, but this information is 
either incidental or very general. And yet most of the so- 
called prophecy, as read to us by the professional interpret- 
ers, seems to have no object except to satisfy the prying cu- 
riosity of a morbid imagination. Those Scriptures in which 
we are interested are very plainly written, and their more ob- 
scure meanings are unfolded as the necessity for it arises. 



336 DIUTURNITY. 



CHAPTER LXXXVII. 

CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION AND END OP THE WORLD. 

This essay needs a chapter more directly on the specific 
subjects set forth at the head of this, and I propose to 
supply this need. And, first, I will venture to suggest that 
theological writers sometimes furnish us lessons on this sub- 
ject which no man can rationally believe to be true. 

Let us first settle one or two axioms which will not prob- 
ably be questioned. We can have no ideas of resurrection, 
nor of any thing else, in another state of existence, of a 
historical or periodical character; and, therefore, all such 
teachings, if they convey to us any ideas, are certainly er- 
roneous ones. The period of the resurrection is frequently 
spoken of as we would speak of the period of a coming 
eclipse, or of some other earthly event; and so we suppose 
the resurrection will come up in a hundred or a thousand 
years, or some other number of years, in the future. This 
must certainly be erroneous, because periodicity is predica- 
ble of time, and this mode of existence, exclusively. The very 
moment you suppose time — periods — measured or measur- 
able lengths of duration, to extend beyond the line of this 
life, then you surely err. 

How do we know this? it might be inquired. We know 
it because the next state or condition, or mode of exist- 
ence, to which we are tending, is eternal; and measurable 
or divisible periods in eternity is contradictory and absurd, 
and the expressions, therefore, do not convey an idea. 

. Then, when we are told to look forward through meas- 
urable periods of time to see the general resurrection, we 
are told nothing that we can understand; an idea is not 



RESURRECTION AND END OF THE WORLD. 337 

conveyed to us. We might, in truth, be as well told to 
look backward, or upward or downward, or far or near. 
Periodicity is no more of a proper instrument with which to 
measure, or estimate, or weigh, or comprehend the mode of 
existence after we pass away from this mode, than are our 
visual organs or a surveyor's chain. 

Our ideas of eternity are exclusively negative. We can no 
more form an affirmative idea of eternity than a being with- 
out reasoning faculties. We have absolutely no idea at all 
of what eternity is; our ideas are exclusively what it is not. 
We know it is not made up of periods ; for then it would 
not be eternity. Divisibility predicated of eternity is ab- 
surd. G-od exists but does not grow old. Neither do men 
nor their spirits, as any one may choose to consider it, in 
that other state, grow old. How they exist without growing 
old is one of the many things we do not know. It is a 
thing we can not know with human faculties. 

It may be said that we have no other way of speaking 
of the resurrection, or of things in eternity, otherwise than- 
as periods of the future. That may be very true, but our 
ignorance should not be made to supply the place of wisdom 
and truth. We are ignorant of many things. 

Then, when we speak of any thing having to do with our 
mode of existence after we pass from this world, let the con- 
fession be understood that all possible ideas we have on the 
subject are exclusively negative. Then let us not suppose 
that those who have gone before us into the eternal state, 
are living along merely in some other place, and passing 
through periods of measured or measurable duration parallel 
to those we experience, that they have stayed there as long 
as we have stayed here. Such expressions, or any expres- 
sions implying periods, applied to beings in that mode of ex- 
istence, are utterly without meaning, or without any meaning 
which can be true. 

And I repeat, that if we can not form and exercise 
rational ideas about things of which we can have no clear 
29 



338 DITTTURNITY. 

comprehension, why, be it so. The thing is not at all 
strange nor uncommon, nor difficult to conceive of. All the 
ideas we can conceive as to future, past, before, after, long 
or short duration, belong exclusively to this present mode 
of existence, and have absolutely no meaning at all when 
applied to any other mode. 

Then, when we speak of the resurrection being in the 
future, what do we mean? We mean — to mean any thing 
that is true — that that is our relation to it. But in itself, 
really and truly, we might just as well say it is past as 
future. Neither can be philosophically true. If we reason, 
we must reason about comprehensible things, or else our 
words amount to no reasoning at all. And — suffer it to be 
repeated again — if there are things intimated to us in rev- 
elation which our faculties will not grasp, except merely 
negatively, about which we 'can not reason above and be- 
yond this thing we call nature, and there certainly are many 
such things, why, be it so. Let us acknowledge it, and do 
without comprehending them. 

Many persons, in teaching about the resurrection, assume 
to comprehend and understand things utterly incomprehen- 
sible, as clearly as they do those truths and things which 
are within our reach. This is no teaching at all. They 
give us words which, otherwise applied, have their dis- 
tinct meaning, but in their application here can have no 
meaning, either in the analogies of nature nor the revela- 
tions of truth. To say that there is to be a resurrection in 
the future, as respects persons, ourselves or any others, out 
of this mode of existence, is to utter words without meaniog. 
They do not convey an idea; or, if they teach at all, they 
necessarily teach that which can not be true. Reasoning 
means the exercise of human faculties. 

I am aware of the arguments, pro and con, which have 
been put forth by Dr. Samuel Clark, Dr. Crombia, Chalmers, 
Thomas Brown, Paley, Watson, Hitchcock, Mr. Hume, and 
others, on the question of an infinite series. These argu- 



RESURRECTION AND END OE THE WORLD. 339 

ments are logical and comprehensible, so long as they be 
confined to the history of matter ; but when they attempt to 
open up and discuss the eternity of matter, I frankly con- 
fess that I can see no difference between an affirmative and 
a negative. Infinite means that which is not divisible. Di- 
visible means comprehensible, not infinite. Dr. Hitchcock 
very judiciously removes that argument from the theater 
of the logomachist to the more comprehensible plains of 
geology. 

It seems to me that the proposition of Mr. Tracy, that 
" there can be no number actually infinite, and therefore no 
infinite number of questions," is self-evident. The impos- 
sibility does not rest, it seems to me, in the incapacity of 
the mathematician, as Dr. Hitchcock seems to suppose, but 
in the innate impossibility and even contradiction of the 
thing itself. 

We may reason of periodicity, applying it here, and meas- 
ure our periods, make our almanacs, look forward or back- 
ward to events in the history of this life and this globe, 
but we may not apply any of these terms which measure 
or divide duration elsewhere, in an eternal state of existence. 
Long time — no matter how long, a thousand seconds or a 
thousand millions of centuries multiplied into their cubes — 
is one thing, and a clearly comprehensible thing— mathe- 
matically comprehensible, I mean. Eternity, endless dura- 
tion, is not only another but a totally different thing. It 
is not merely different in degree, as some teach, because it 
is absurd to suppose that that which is endless has degrees 
or is measurable. These two things are absolutely contra- 
dictory. If we admit that there is a state or mode of ex- 
istence which is endless, eternal, with no limited duration, 
then let us admit it, and not contradict it at the next 
breath. A long period, however long, has no nearer affinity 
or resemblance to eternity than a short period, however 
short. 

I may be told that Scripture speaks of the resurrection 



340 DIUTURNITY. 

and of other tilings in the next world as future, and that 
the speaking was to us. All this is readily admitted; and 
it will, I presume, be as readily admitted that these teach- 
ings were not intended, nor are they to be understood, as 
true in a proper, philosophical sense. The words are used 
in what is very properly called an accommodated sense; that 
is, being addressed to us, and we not being able to com- 
prehend the real truth in the case, for the lack of suitable 
faculties, the only thing possible, without changing our na- 
ture — giving us a new constitution — was to use such words 
as would give us such faint and partial idea in the premises 
as we were capable of receiving. Inspiration itself — with all 
reverence, it may be said — supposing our constitution was to 
remain unchanged, must needs either say to us nothing on 
the subject, or say such things as we could receive. 

The instructions of Scripture in regard to the resurrec- 
tion, and of all other things pertaining to the future world, 
are given us for religious, and not for philosophical purposes, 
though none of these teachings are by any means nor in 
any sense unphilosophical ; for, as has been well said by 
another, scientific truth, rightly applied, is religious truth. 

Dr. Hitchcock, whose work in some parts is near akin 
to the subject of this chapter, says that "some theological 
writers have maintained that the day of judgment will oc- 
cupy a long period — thousands or tens of thousands of years 
perhaps." 

I am aware that such are the dreams of some writers 
called theological; but what they have "maintained" on 
the subject, I venture to suggest, is perhaps a very different 
thing. The objection I suggest to such notions is, that it 
is palpably apparent that, as there can be no "period" nor 
no "years" in the eternal state, the above statement can 
be neither true nor untrue. It is not a proposition. Noth- 
ing is affirmed, nothing is denied, nothing is said. The 
words of those "theological writers" have no meaning. 
When they can teach us to reason without- human ideas, 



RESURRECTION AND END OF THE WORLD. 341 

then they may tell us about the "years," in a literal and 
philosophical sense, which they find in the processes of the 
judgment. Such teachings can not be justified until it be 
shown that there is no such thing as eternity — endless dura- 
tion; for if it be endless it can not be either divisible or 
measurable, because endless means indisvisible and immeas- 
urable. You might as well search for the corner of a circle. 
You can not find it, because circle means without corners. 

Many teachings on the general judgment, and what is 
called the end of the world, drift along with the clumsy 
idea that the physical restoration of the body to the soul 
will reinstate the former into its present fleshly condition; 
that we will then have the animal frame and organs we 
now possess. This can not be so. St. Paul tells us it will 
be a "spiritual body," raised in incorruption — put on im- 
mortality. And though I am well aware that "spiritual 
body" is literally a contradiction in terms, and, therefore, 
can not be really and philosophically true, and hence we 
can not fully understand what it does mean, yet we can 
understand some things it does certainly not mean. It does 
not mean that we shall have fleshly bodies ; or, more plainly, 
it means that our bodies will not be fleshly, muscular, or- 
ganic — such as they now are. 

If any one will take the pains to examine carefully into 
the expressions in Job, Psalms, Daniel, Matthew, Luke, 
Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, He- 
brews, 2 Peter, and Revelation, where, chiefly, the resur- 
rection is spoken of, he will find it always treated in the 
most elevated strains of allegorical language. And he might 
inquire, why is this? Why not, at least somewhere, let 
revelation speak to us in plain and simple phraseology? it 
might be inquired. The reason of this, no doubt, is, that 
it is impossible for any plainer language than this to be 
addressed to us. The plain truth is quite beyond our com- 
prehension, and would, therefore, be far less intelligible to 
us than those paintings of imagery. The things treated of 



342 DIUTURNITY. 

are beyond the sphere of our comprehension. Suppose you 
were to undertake to explain to a child what science has 
demonstrated in astronomy. If you were to give it in such 
language as a professional astronomer would use — in his 
style, using his technical words, which he can not dispense 
with, and in his language — it would, to the child, be utterly 
meaningless. And so you content yourself with a very low 
and meager description, rather than give none at all. Bev- 
elation itself is shut up to the necessity of tempering its 
language to our constitution, or being silent, supposing our 
constitution is not to be changed. 

The man, therefore, who expects to understand descrip- 
tions of things outside this world — beyond this mode of ex- 
isting — expects absolute impossibilities. Nevertheless, there 
are some faint outlines of the subject that he may partially 
comprehend. 

As to when the judgment will be, that is not a question 
which, in itself, is capable of being answered. It is not a 
question cognizable by the human understanding. The term 
when has reference exclusively to this life. We can apply 
it to any occurrence in this world, but in the very nature 
of things, and particularly seeing that the next world is an 
eternal state of being, it can have no application whatever 
to any occurrence in that. To say that a man enters upon 
the judgment immediately after he dies, may very likely be 
true; but it is certainly not contradicted by saying he will 
enter upon the judgment in ten thousand years after he 
dies. Both statements, if they mean any thing, mean the 
same thing. 

The end of the world by conflagration, which is to pre- 
cede the general judgment, has furnished material for no 
little speculation. The few passages of Scripture we have 
on the subject, as is supposed, are variously understood. 
The most common and most irrational notion is, that at some 
future time, in the course of our current history, the world 
will be overtaken suddenly and unexpectedly by a most 



RESURRECTION AND END OP THE WORLD. 343 

terrible and overwhelming conflagration, which will burn 
the world up, as a house would be burned up by a similar 
though infinitely smaller disaster. Some seem to think 
that the matter of the globe will be absolutely annihilated. 

I do not propose to enter the list of these controversies, 
but will merely make a very few observations. And, first, 
as to annihilation , it is a thing which no man can believe^ 
because no man can conceive of such a thing. No man can 
conceive of something changing to nothing. The proposition 
is contradictory and absurd, so far as human knowledge 
can extend. We can conceive of change in matter- — change 
indefinitely — both in kind and degree; but change — any 
change- — is the very opposite of annihilation, and declares 
it absolutely impossible. When we talk about annihilation, 
we talk about something utterly inconceivable, and, there- 
fore, we do not convey an idea. Annihilation is philosoph- 
ically out of the question. I do not say it can not be; I 
only say we can not conceive such a thing. 

Secondly, the Scriptures do not teach that any burning 
this globe may meet with will be a catastrophe, in any sense 
or degree. Nor does the Bible in any place teach, or its 
language imply, that it will be a sudden change of any sort. 
It does not imply disaster, evil, harm, damage, destruction, 
nor desolation, nor any thing of the kind. Our common 
ideas of destruction by fire are drawn from the burning of 
houses, cities, and the like; and without, as it seems to 
me, much if any reasoning on the subject, the conclusion 
is hastily drawn that the burning of a world must be some- 
thing of this sort; that it must be a demolition, a disor- 
ganization amounting to the most fearful desolation and ruin. 

The truth is, we have never seen a world burn vp 7 and, in 
the absence of any detailed history of such an occurrence, 
we are likely to take many things for granted without 
knowing much about them. And so, when we are told the 
world will be burned, we immediately suppose such a ca- 
lamity as the burning of a city, only proportionally larger. 



344 DIUTURNITY. 

But all this is gratuitous. Neither reason nor' revela- 
tion teach any thing of the kind, nor do they warrant any 
such conclusions. Geology, so far as its researches are seen 
to harmonize with Scripture — that is, so far as geological 
researches have been truly and properly made — demonstrate 
that this globe has been in a burning state, or a state of 
fusion, for many long, long ages before it became suffi- 
ciently cool, and its crust sufficiently dense to sustain veg- 
etable and animal life. And yet it encountered no misfor- 
tune, no loss nor damage; all was the regular, slow, moving 
forward under the wise and merciful guidance of the Al- 
mighty. 

A few years ago — very few indeed — the crust of the earth 
became sufficiently dense and cool for its evident purpose; 
viz., the residence of man. It is still undergoing change 
every day, as rapidly as it ever did or ever will, so far as we 
know, from all we learn either from nature or revelation; 
and it will continue to be the residence of man until it 
shall have fully answered the primary and ultimate designs 
of its Creator. It will change somewhat every day, and in 
any considerable period, say ten or twenty thousand years, 
the change would be to us quite perceptible; and it will 
continue to be the residence of man, not surely, for the in- 
significant and abortive period of a few thousand years, but 
for a period at least respectable when considered in con- 
nection with what we have already learned of its history. 

Nevertheless, there is a period coming up in the history 
not only of the world, but of mankind, when all living per- 
sons will be immediately transferred from our mortal to the 
immortal mode of existence. What we commonly call death, 
and especially using the word in the sense of an infliction, 
or having attached to it the idea of misfortune, is not the 
mere transfer from the one state to the other, but the mode 
of the transfer. We have, at least, two instances in Bible 
history where this transfer was effected without the use or 
intervention of the thing we call death. And as we may 



RESURRECTION AND END OF THE WORLD. 345 

readily suppose that in the mature, sinless ages of our his- 
tory, death, or the transfer, has long since ceased to be 
what we now commonly call death, that in the closing scenes 
there will be a sudden translation of all j that is, it will be 
just as sudden as any other deaths, so far as each individual 
is concerned. There must necessarily, it would seem, be some- 
thing of this kind in the closing scenes of earthly history. 
The earth is not immortal, neither is man, considered either 
as an individual or as a race. Some time in the history of 
this earth, man will walk upon it for the last time. When 
the world or the earth itself shall have answered these ends, 
the race now inhabiting it, and for whose use it was brought 
into its present state of being, will cease to use it. It has 
answered its great, Godlike purpose. The race of man has 
used it as long as was intended and was desirable for these 
ends and purposes. Man has now no more use for it. He 
has laid it aside, perhaps, thousands or millions of years 
since. May be the race, as mortal man, may have long 
since ceased to exist. But whether it will be finally laid 
aside gradually or all at once, it will be done in some 
regular way of which we, in the present stage of our his- 
tory, are not, perhaps could not be, informed, and about 
the mode or details of which I do not see fit to trouble 
myself, nor hold an argument with any one, because it 
could not be useful. 

And away in what, to our feeble faculties, seems the far 
distant, diuturnal ages of an immense future, when it ceases 
to be used by us, it will pass into other uses in the natural 
providence of God ; and, since we see a few dim intimations 
looking in that direction, it becomes very easy and very 
natural to suppose that it will again pass into a state of 
combustion and fusion. 

But he who reads prophecies, in a remark of Peter, and 
a few other places, enabling him to look forward and dis- 
cern particular events, reads that which revelation never 
intended. Like a thousand other prereadings of prophecies, 



346 DltTTURNlTY. 

wlien the things alluded to transpire, he will, most likely, 
find himself mistaken. With the single exception of the 
prophecies of our Savior's coming, prophecies are not in- 
tended to enable us to foresee events. 

There are geological arguments going far to show that the 
planets of a solar system are constantly passing a great 
round of operation from a beginning to a completion, per- 
forming cycles the chronological measures of which would 
seem, to our feeble comprehension, to be absolutely and over- 
whelmingly immense; and yet to a higher order of intelli- 
gence, or to ourselves in a higher state of intelligence, all 
will appear easy, rational, and comprehensive. 

I must be permitted to refuse to allow that this is mere 
speculation; or if so, then what is the character of the 
near-at-hand, sudden burning-up, and destroying theory? It 
rests upon a few very doubtful, and on all hands regarded 
as quite uncertain, expressions of Scripture, which every 
sound reader of prophecy will tell you can be understood 
only in a very general, symbolical, and highly figurative 
sense, making them mean very different things from what 
they say, and setting aside all reason and consistency; 
whereas the more rational views are at least in apparent 
harmony with both. It is not true that the great and com- 
prehensive works of Jehovah must, all of them, be cramped 
and narrowed down to the little limits of our every-day 
experience and very feeble powers of comprehension. 

Dr. Hitchcock says that " both revelation and geology 
agree in assuring us that the new earth, which will emerge 
from the ruins of the present, will be improved in its con- 
dition." 

That is very true, I presume, only I would not have said 
emerge, and I would have used some better word than ruins. 
They convey wrong ideas to the popular mind. There will 
be no "ruins," nor will the world "emerge" from in or 
behind something. It will merely change. 

On page 406, he tells us that "we have seen that the 



CONCERNING THE FINAL DESTINY OP THE WORLD. 347 

• 

geological changes which our world has hitherto undergone 
have been an improvement of its condition, and that each 
successive scenery has been a brighter exhibition of Divine 
wisdom and benevolence. Shall this process be arrested 
when the present scenery closes? We know that the right- 
eous will forever advance in holiness and happiness. Why 
may not a part of that increase depend upon their intro- 
duction into higher and higher economies through eternal 
ages? May not this be one of the modes in which new 
developments of the character, of Grod will open upon them 
in the world of bliss?" 



CHAPTER LXXXVIII. 

CONCERNING THE FINAL AND GLORIOUS DESTINY OF THIS 
WORLD. 

Mr. Macintosh, of England, has written a theory of the 
universe, which is styled Electrical, in opposition to the 
theory of Newton, which is based upon gravitation, or, at 
least, in opposition to some of Newton's expositions of this 
theory. The electrical theory evinces profound learning, 
and shows not only an intricate acquaintance with all the 
written philosophy on the subject, but a large amount of 
scientific research and independent examination. He ex- 
amines the laws of nature bearing on the question, in their 
most simple as well as their most profound operations. 

The outline of the electrical theory, in some of its aspects, 
very briefly, is somewhat as follows, so far as it relates to 
the matters now under consideration: All matter is pos- 
sessed of two properties, or qualities, called forces, which 
are primary and ultimate. These are attraction and repul- 
sion; and all bodies, in all states and of all sizes, are con- 



348 DIUTTJRNITY. 

stantly attracting and repelling each other. Electricity, or 
the undiscovered thing or things we call by that name, is 
known to act or be acted upon, we do not know which, 
both positively and negatively; that is, bodies charged with 
it attract and repel according to the relative proportions of 
electrical force. The side of our globe facing the sun is 
constantly being charged with electricity, and that part of 
the side which is receding, having been longest exposed to 
the sun's face, is, of course, more heavily charged than that 
part just now beginning to face the sun; and so the former 
is being repelled while the latter is being attracted, and 
hence the earth's rotary motion, and hence the revolution 
of all heavenly bodies, and of all motion of all kinds. 

The sun is constantly throwing off matter in a fluid or 
gaseous state, which, because of a tendency to spiral motion 
pervading all matter, but seen only in fluids, is constantly 
being formed into bodies of immense size, which, in their 
earlier history, are called comets. These comets become 
gradually more and more dense, and, of course, smaller, so 
that in the course of many ages they become sufficiently 
dense and hard to support animal and vegetable life; and 
growing continually harder and more dense, they will, after 
many ages, become too hard to support either. 

Moreover, all the planets are gradually but very slowly 
shortening their orbits, and so, approaching nearer and nearer 
to the sun. This process will continue until, after the lapse 
of many ages, they will become solid, more so than the 
hardest flint rock, and, of course, intensely hot; and, finally, 
they will approach so near the sun that the repelling power 
will absolutely give way, and the globe will plunge headlong, 
bodily, into the bowels of the sun, and become smelted and 
lose itself in the vast sea of liquid fire. 

Thus the sun receives back again, from time to time, as 
much matter in another form as it throws off by the constant 
operation, as above stated. 

And so our globe was, many thousands or millions of 



CONCENING THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WORLD. 349 

years or ages ago, a comet; and, in process of time, it grew 
harder and smaller, and more and more solid; and after a 
time its matter became sufficiently hard, portions of it, 
that it bore animal and vegetable life. And in the course of 
ages it will become uninhabitable, and, growing harder and 
harder, will finally plunge swiftly into the sun's vast sea of 
liquid fire. 

And thus the planetary systems will continue their rounds 
perpetually. This is his theory. 

To the unpracticed mind in the school of nature this 
theory may look very objectionable; but to the eye of 
science, whether it be true or not, it appears transcend- 
ently grand and sublime beyond utterance. It is as ap- 
parently feasible as the Newtonian system ; and it may be 
possible that, after all, the Principia may have to give place 
to a theory more true apd more philosophical, or at least 
better explained. 

But, however this may be, and whether either one is the 
true theory of cosmological science, the Electrical seems to 
harmonize rationally with the Bible account of the world, 
both as to its creation and final destiny. 

There is a floating notion abroad that this world, after a 
time, with its inhabitants, is to be suddenly burned up and 
destroyed. Mercy on us! for what? For what wise pur- 
pose could this world be destroyed? Was its creation a 
mistake? or what possible good could come of its destruc- 
tion? The burning of a city, a town, or even a single 
dwelling is a calamity; but what possible good could come 
of the destruction of a world? - This is too great a calamity 
to contemplate. It can not be. 

The Scriptures from which these inferences are drawn are 
chiefly the following: In Psalms cii: 26, we are told that 
the heavens and the earth "shall perish;" that they shall 
"wax old like a garment," and "be changed." In Isaiah 
lvii: 6, we read: "For the heavens shall vanish away like 
smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and 



350 DIUTURNITY. 

they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." In Mat- 
thew xxiv: 35, we read that "heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." And the same 
is written by Mark, and the above passage from Psalms is 
quoted in Heb. i: 11. And St. John, in Rev. xx : 11, says: 
"I saw a great white. throne and him that sat upon it, from 
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there 
was found no place for them." And in xxi: 1, he says: 
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was 
no more sea." And in Isaiah xxxiv : 4, it is said: "And 
all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens 
shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall 
fall down." And in chapter lxv and verse 17 we read, "For 
behold I create new heavens and a new earth," etc. But 
the text most relied upon for the burning up of the world 
is in the third of 2d Peter, the highly allegorical descrip- 
tions of which may be seen by the reader at his leisure. 

By comparing these texts with verses 17-19 of Isaiah xlv, 
and Rev. xxi: 1-5, and other passages which any one may 
refer to in a moment with a good reference Bible, it will be 
seen that those passages which speak of a new creation, and 
of the earth, etc., passing away, signify, in the language of the 
best brief notes on the text I have ever seen — viz., the London 
Annotated Paragraph Bible — "a great moral and spiritual 
revolution, which shall bring to an end the former confu- 
sions, iniquities, and miseries of the human race, and shall 
fill the Church with perpetual joy." 

Perhaps it is well enough for poetry to tell us about 

"The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds," 

but the plain idea it conveys is at war with both reason and 
revelation. 

And then, on the other hand, those who insist upon 
Christ's coming here in a changed mode of existence, so as 
to establish a mere human jurisdiction over the affairs of 



CONCERNING THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WORLD. 351 

earth, by means of which he will refine, sublimate and 
revolutionize the affairs of earth in "a thousand years," 
quote for us, in opposition to the above texts, that "the 
earth abideth forever;" that "the meek shall inherit the 
earth;" that "the world also is established that it can not 
be moved," and other similar expressions. 

And it may be that all these Scriptures are true, and that 
they not only harmonize with each other, when rightly un- 
derstood, but with all the geological, astronomical, and other 
natural truths which science has demonstrated. 

It may be that the earth, as at present constituted, may 
not be destined to remain forever, and yet no violent or 
sudden change may ever overtake it. It may cease to exist, 
and "vanish away like smoke," and "perish," and still no 
calamity or even misfortune of any kind overtake it. These 
changes, any changes, may come about so gradually and 
naturally in many ages, that if one person could live and 
see it all, he would see nothing happen at any particular 
time more than is happening every day. No change in any 
one century might be greater than such as the world has 
undergone during the last century, or any other century of 
its past existence. Even if the earth should plunge swiftly 
headlong into the sun, it would be a matter of no moment, 
for thousands or millions of years previously it had ceased 
to support either animal or vegetable life. 

The earth is undergoing change now. This it has done 
from the first, and this it will continue to do; but it never 
did nor never will, so far as we have the least intimation, 
pass through any more nor greater changes than it is pass- 
ing through all the while. When we speak of the world 
cosmologically we must elevate our ideas cosmologically, or, 
if we can not do this, we must content ourselves with the 
idea that we can not. 

But as to this world being destroyed, or sudden calamity 
overtaking it, that is not only all poetry, but such poetry 
as flows from a very superficial view of both the world and 



352 DIUTURNITY. 

the Scriptures. No, no ; this world was not made for a toy, 
to be looked at a little while and then destroyed and thrown 
away. Nevertheless, very much of the appearance of things 
will pass ciway. It is now passing away; it has passed 
away an inch or two since some of us have lived. The 
diseased parts — its 'corruption, sin, irregularity, almost the 
entire present face of things, the moral, mental, and physical 
diseases of earth — all these will pass away, and there will 
be a new heavens and a new earth. 

The world is to be made better, not worse; it is to be 
improved, not destroyed; it is to be preserved, not shat- 
tered to pieces and thrown away. The world is neither a 
mistake nor a failure. If we could see it even ten thousand 
years hence, it would look wonderfully different from what 
it does now. Let its natural capabilities be fully worked 
out. Its elements of improvement are all here; let them 
be worked out. Almost every thing the world has is latent; 
let these properties come to the surface. 

It is, perhaps, constitutional with mankind that there shall 
be classes in the general scale of elevation. This will, per- 
haps, always be. Then, for the purpose of arranging our 
thoughts conveniently, let us divide society into classes. 
We will say the first class in general intelligence shall con- 
sist of educated men — moderately educated; the second 
shall be those poorly educated, and going down to those 
who can barely read and write ; the third class shall be 
sensible, illiterate men of passable neighborhood informa- 
tion, and the fourth shall consist of savages, or those 
nearly so, or those who are very ignorant. And now sup- 
pose these classes maintain their relation, is there any 
thing improbable in the supposition that, after a time, the 
second class ,will occupy the ground the first now does, the 
third the second, and the fourth the third? 

If we look back into our history a thousand years or 
two, or even a few hundred, we will see much to instruct 
us. Only three hundred years ago those of the first class 



CONCERNING THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WORLD. 353 

were only one hundredth part in numerical strength of 
what they now are. Then, and previously, educated men 
were very rare indeed ; even the nobility and wealthy did 
not generally dream of being educated. What we now con- 
sider an ordinary collegiate education, was, a few hundred 
years ago, regarded in the light of a profession. Those who 
chose that calling did so as a man would choose law or 
medicine. Popular education is a thing of yesterday almost. 
Within say two hundred and fifty years past, while there 
has not been so much of an advance in learning absolutely, 
there has been an increase in educated men of more than 
a hundred-fold. 

And if you will look slowly and carefully into the his- 
tory of the world from the first, so far as we know it, it 
will be seen that the same undeviating laws of progress 
have ever been in operation. In knowledge the world is 
progressing in two different ways. It is both absolute and 
relative. The former shows that some men now are further 
advanced in the principal branches of human knowledge 
than any were formerly; and the latter shows that more 
men are advanced than formerly. Look at the relative 
strength of literary authorship now and say two hundred 
years ago only. The increase is more than a hundred to 
one. And the same thing is to be seen in the sciences and 
in all branches of human knowledge. 

As a general thing, therefore, the second, third, and 
fourth classes are taking the places of those next before 
them, while the first is advancing to new positions. 

Of course, these changes are not observable in a day, nor 
in the lifetime of each person; but they are distinctly ob- 
servable in periods of one thousand years. The law is uni- 
versal and the advance is uniform. 

There are branches of learning now among us which, in 
common estimation and in practice, are confined to certain per- 
sons for special callings, and are not deemed to be generally 
or popularly useful. A man now does not study civil law 
30 



354 DITJTURNITY. 

unless lie expects to become a barrister, and prosecute that 
particular calling. A man does not study anatomy, phys- 
iology, or materia medica, or pharmacy, unless for the special 
purpose of qualifying himself for a physician; and so of 
astronomy, surveying, nautical science, etc. 

But all these branches of learning will, in their turn, fall 
into general and popular education. A country boy will 
not be considered educated for general usefulness until he 
shall be at least well versed in all those branches now 
called sciences. It might be suggested that this, in the 
first place, would be almost or quite unnecessary, and so 
much labor lost; and, in the second, it would occupy too 
much time for every school-boy to pursue all these branches. 
Just so, precisely, it was reasoned, a few years ago, with re- 
gard to writing, arithmetic, and reading. What do people 
generally need, it was argued, with these branches of learn- 
ing? They did not need them, or did not need them much, 
in the condition of society in those times. And a little 
further back, reading and writing no more belonged to the 
general education of persons in the higher classes of society, 
than a thorough knowledge of the geology of Central Africa 
is now considered essential to the common- school education 
of all the boys and girls in the neighborhood. 

In the present state and condition of society, it is not 
considered essential, and hence it is not essential, for all 
the neighborhood boys, in order to a good education, to be 
thoroughly versed in all the higher branches taught in all 
the best universities of all kinds in the world. But, unless 
the laws of progress, which have been universally in opera- 
tion since the world began, shall cease, which is a natural 
impossibility in the current condition of things, then the 
time will come when any one will be regarded illiterate, if 
not an ignoramus, who shall not have reached the highest 
point of useful learning which has yet been reached in any 
or all the branches of human learning. 

Most assuredly, the third class, as above classified, will, in 



CONCERNING THE FINAL DESTINY OE THE WORLD. 355 

time, occupy the ground the first class now does, and the 
second and first classes will be as far ahead of them as they 
are now ; and if you ask me what will be the field occupied 
by the second and first classes, I reply that, in the nature 
of things, these are questions which can not now be an- 
swered. 

For lack of a knowledge of material for comparison, we 
can not now describe those fields, nor make a survey of 
them. But we know this much, if we know no more : we 
know that there does lie before us vast, vast unexplored 
fields of knowledge — fields rich in mines of thought and 
knowledge — knowledge of God and of man — of a thousand 
kinds. And we know that man has a natural capacity for 
what we would now consider a pretty thorough exploration 
of these unexplored regions. 

These things will inevitably result if you do but let the 
world move on as it is now moving. Let there be no new 
laws made nor any existing ones be repealed, which things, 
indeed, can not be done; for God, it is not irreverent to 
say, can not be inconsistent with his own perfections. 

Of what we call savage life we have spoken before, and 
looked somewhat into its relation to the human family. It 
is not a normal condition of man, but an incidental thing 
which has happened in these current ages. It is a low, 
debased state of morals and intelligence which ought not to 
be. Nothing is necessary but intelligence and religion in 
order to eradicate it entirely from the face of the earth. 
It can not last long. Savage people will advance and oc- 
cupy the position of the third class, and then the second, 
and then the first ; and the third, second, and first will 
still keep before them as now. 

The laws of intellectual progress will continue; they can 
not cease. Progress belongs to the very constitution of 
things. Nothing stands still. Nothing either in mind or 
matter is absolutely at rest. The very rocks are condens- 
ing; and as to animal life, either in its physical or mental 



356 DIUTUKNITY. 

aspects, remaining at rest, there can lbe no such thing. 
Mind progresses in its very nature, and there is but one 
direction in which it can proceed. A man may learn but 
he can not unlearn; and when a man learns something, that 
very thing itself has an undeviating tendency to impart 
accelerated force to the natural intellectual current of his 
offspring. This tendency, however, meets incidental imped- 
iments and irregularities, or its effects would be seen more 
uniformly. 

But this increase and these improvements will not be 
absolutely perpetual in this present mode of existence, for 
these important reasons and from these important consider- 
ations : 

Every thing in nature, absolutely every thing, is not only 
in motion, but in circular motion. It passes round and round 
in what is not inaptly Called a circuit of motion. Every 
thing is performing circles and cycles. It is difficult to find 
a point of beginning or of ending, except in regard to in- 
dividuals, as a person, a tree, or a thought. These in them- 
selves have a place to begin and a place to end, but in their 
relation to other things they are but segments, or parts of 
circles or cycles ; and yet, in passing round, nothing comes 
back to precisely the same place nor the same condition. It 
is said that the earth does not revolve twice in exactly the 
same orbit, but in an advanced one, in the progress of its 
cycle. The same particle of water does not twice moisten 
the same plant; nor does the same particle of carbon twice 
perform the same office. 

And so with man. First, we see the thousands of indi- 
vidual things which make up his personality, and then his 
individual personality or identity; and then we see Jiim as 
a family, and then as a neighborhood; his great variety of 
social relationship, his nationality; and, lastly, we see him 
as a whole, as a single race. And his circuit of motion 
relates to all this variety of aspect and conditions. 

With our present means of seeing, we can only discern a 



CONCERNING THE PINAL DESTINY OP THE WORLD. 357 

single segment, or at most but a segment at a time, of these 
numberless rounds of operation. But a segment of a circle 
implies a circle, as an arc implies a periphery. We are said 
to be " on the eve of great events;" that "some great consum- 
mation is about to take place." That depends upon what is 
meant by great and by consummation. Great events are cer- 
tainly at hand, and always have been. And relative consum- 
mation is the every-day work of Providence. No events are 
great in themselves, and yet all seem great to the unexpe- 
rienced. All events are new. Nothing occurs twice. 

Every thing has its beginning, its progress, and maturity, 
in order to find a re -beginning and to pass round the stages 
of incipiency and consummation again. The pre-adamite 
states of this earth had their consummation, and so had all 
other changes in nature and providence. But 

"The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds" 

is poetry, and belongs to the dreams of fancy and short- 
sighted imagination. 

Whether this world will become so renewed and refined 
as to be finally the abode of the blessed, is not a question 
cognizant to the human understanding. No man can con- 
ceive a difference between the affirmative and the negative, 
because no man can conceive any mode of existence other 
than our present mode. 

And so, also, whether in the more or less distant diu- 
turnal ages of our incoming history, the face of the provi- 
dence of God in this world will put on these or those as- 
pects no man can now tell, because we have no experience 
in those things. We have no means of comparison. But 
this we do know : the elements of improvement are all around 
us. Advancement to higher and still higher positions is 
the order of Providence. There are hindrances to improve- 
ment, but they are only hindrances; and, however great 
these hindrances, the force of nature and of grace combined 
are greater. 



358 DIUTTJKNITT. 

Happiness is the order of creation and of providence; 
unhappiness of any kind and to any extent is the excep- 
tion, not the rule. Man was created to he happy. This is 
the sole object and end of creation. God is glorified in 
creature happiness. The only great central idea we are 
able to predicate of the Almighty is the happiness of crea- 
tures. G-od is pleased and glorified in whatever augments 
the sum of human happiness. Creation was intended for a 
great system of enjoyment; and not of certain degrees of 
enjoyment", but of bliss indefinite. Happiness commenced 
with creation and continues, and is to continue indefinitely — 
I mean as respects the race. A few individuals will be- 
come infinitely miserable, while the happiness of the race 
will augment indefinitely. 

The slow march of time — slow as it appears to us — will 
continue. History will walk straight forward, on and on, 
through coming ages. There will be no convulsions, only 
such incidents as have happened before; and even a flood 
shall not occur again, but smoothness and regularity will 
mark the progress of things. And after a time sin, with 
its natural unfortunate results, shall be left behind with 
the other concerns of antiquity; and paradise, earthly, such 
as Glod intended, and such as nature now calls for loudly, 
and every thing anticipates, shall spread itself over these 
elysian fields, and the world shall yet have a lifetime of 
good; and our true blissful state shall be glorious, and it 
shall wane gradually into the far-off dim distance of sen- 
sitive periodicity, where years and scenes and cycles shall 
still roll on. 

And Christ will still be our Savior. His relationship 
will grow nearer and nearer. He will "come" closer and 
still closer, for he will be continually among his friends; 
and long lengthened blissful ages, of high and increasing 
intelligence, and deep and increasing devotion, shall bring 
the saved on earth into the very vicinage of the saved in 
heaven. 



CONCERNING THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WORLD. 359 

"Holiness to the Lord" snail be the universal inscrip- 
tion upon all that the world has and is. The very labor 
of man shall, like that of Adam in Paradise, be refreshment 
and joy. The life of man shall be a continuous liturgy, 
the purest and noblest thoughts shall give birth to the 
every-day conversation of man. Peace — sweet peace — shall 
stand around on every hand as the angel-sentinel of God, 
and the present shall be bright and lovely, and the past shall 
come up full of gladness and gratitude, and the future shall 
gleam with the highest and holiest anticipations. 

Neither shall any thing be common and profane. Our 
very dwellings shall be consecrated. "Holiness to the Lord" 
shall be written every-where. Our very bread shall be eaten 
as devotedly as sacramental bread. The Church shall be in 
every house, and the humblest articles of domestic use shall 
.be as beautiful as the furniture of the ark, and as holy as 
the cherubim therein. 

Sickness, famine, war, want, hate, and frowns are the 
footprints of sin; but the tread of the Savior shall efface 
them perfectly, and the earth shall be clean and smooth as 
it was. Misfortune is unnatural, and shall not be, for man 
shall be recovered. We say now of a man, that he died a 
natural death; no, he died an unnatural death. If pain, or 
sorrow, or sickness, or regret was there, then it was unnat- 
ural. If any other physician than Christ was in attendance, 
it was unnatural. 

0, for thoughts that are transporting — for winds that 
will waft the sober imaginings to the solid realities of the 
future! 0, could we but anticipate the truth and see our 
world cleansed ! Philosophy shall then no longer decoy 
unsuspecting truth; poetry shall no more gild a lie, and 
music shall no more pander to the passions of men. Science 
shall be religion, and religion shall be science. Rhetoric 
shall smooth the language of praise, and logic shall fasten 
the conclusions of truth, and art shall beautify the surface, 
and holiness shall sanctify the substance of all created 



360 DIUTURNITY. 

things. And progress — further and higher, away in earth's 
distant cycles — shall move on and stilJ on; and the masses 
of mankind — sinless and scholastic — in the combined uni- 
versity of earth, shall graduate into the very university of 
heaven. 



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Many of them are among the most illustrious of the earth." — Nashville and 
Louisville Christian Advocate. 

" No words of criticism, or of eulogy, need he spent on Plutarch's Lives. 
Every body knows it to be the most popular book of biographies now extant 
in any known language. It h >s been more read, by the youth of all nations, 
for the last four or five centuries in particular, than any ever written. It 
has done more good, in its way, and has been the means of forming more 
sublime resolutions, and even more sublime characters than any other work 
with which we are acquainted, except the Bible. It is a better piece of prop- 
erty for a young man to own, than an eighty acre 1 >t in the Mississippi Val- 
ley, or many hundred dollars in current money. We would rather ieave it 
as a legacy to a son, had we to make the choice, than any moderate amount 
of property, if we were certain he would read it. There are probably but 
few really great men now living, that have not been largely indebted to it for 
their early aspirations, in consequence of which, they have achieved their 
greatness.'' — Ladies' Repository. 

" No book has been more generally sought after or read with greater 
avidity." — Indiana State Sentinel. 

This is a magnificent Rvo., handsomely and substantially gotten up, in 
every respect highlv creditable to the enterprising house of Applegate & Co. 
Who has not read Plutarch ? for centuries it has occupied a commanding po- 
sition in the literature of the age. It needs no eulogy ; the reading public 
know it to be one of the most interesting, instructive and popular biographies 
now extant.— St. Louis Republican. 

The Western public are under obligations to Messrs. Applegate & Co., of 
Cincinnati, for the handsome and substantial manner in which they have re- 
cently got up editions of several standard works. Dick's Works unabridged, 
Itollin's Ancient History, and now Plutarch's Lives, attest the enterprise and 
good judgment of this firm in their publishing department. To speak of the 
character and merits of Plutarch, which the old and the young of several 
generations are familiar with, would be presumptuous ; but we tan with pro- 
priety refer in terms of high commendation to the manner in which this edi- 
tion has been got up in every department. The size is royal octavo, just 
right for the library. The paper is good, the typography excellent, and the 
calf binding just as it should be. neat and substantial. If this house contin- 
ues as il lias begun, it will soon have an extended and enviable reputation for 
the character and style of its editions of standard works, and it will deserve 
it. — Cincinnati Daily Times. 



APPLEGATE & CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. 



Rollin's Ancient History. 



The Ancient History of the Carthagenians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, 

and Persians, Grecians and Macedonians, including a History of the Arts 

and Sciences of the Ancients, with a Life of the Author. 2 vols.royalSvo., 

sheep, spring back, marbled edge. 

One of the most complete and impartial works ever published. It takes 
us back to early days, and makes us live and think with the men of by-gone 
centuries. It spreads out to us in a pleasant and interesting style, not only 
the events which characterize the early ages, but the inner world of thought 
and feeling, as it swayed the leading minds of the times. No library is com- 
plete without Rollin's Ancient History. 

" A new edition of Rollin's Ancient History has just been issued by Ap- 
plegate & Co. The value and importance of this work are universally ac- 
knowledied. Every private library is deficient without it ; and it is now 
furnished at sc cheap a rate, that every family should have it. It should be 
placed in the hands of all our youth, as infinitely more instructive and use- 
ful than the thousand and one trashy publications with which the country is 
deluged, and which are so apt to vitiate the taste and ruin the minds of young 
readers. One mere word in behalf of this new edition of Rollin : It may not 
be generally known, that in previous English editions a large and interesting 
portion of the work has been suppressed. The deficiencies are here supplied 
and restored from tiie French editions, giving the copy of Messrs. Applegate 
&. Co. a superiority over previous English editions." — Western Recorder. 

'* This work in this form lias been for some years before the public and is 
the best and most complete edition published. The work is comprised in two 
volumes of about six hundred pages each, containing the prefaces of Rollin 
and the ' History of the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients,' which have been 
omitted in most American editions." — Springfield Republic. 

•■ The work is too well known, and has too long been a favorite to require 
any comroendaiionfrom us. Though in some matters more recent investi- 
gations have led to conclusions different from those of the author, yet his 
general accuracy is unquestionable." — Western Christian Advocate. 

,k This work is so well known as standard — as necessary to the completion 
of every gentleman's library — that any extended notice of it would be folly 
on our part. We have named it for the purpose of calling the attention of 
our readers to the beautiful edition issued by the enterprising house of Mess. 
Applegate & Co."— Jfetkodist Protestant., Baltimore. 

The public are under obligations to Applegate & Co. for their splendid 
edition of this standard History.— Times. 

Works like this, that form a connecting link between the splendid civiliza- 
tion of the ancients, and the more enduring progress of the moderns, are a 
boon to the lover of literature and the student of History. — Railroad Record 

Time is fleeting — Kmpires perish and monuments moulder. But a book 
like this survives the wieck of time and the ravages of decay. — Globe. 

The history of departed kingdoms, with the causes of their sad decline and 
fall, serve as light-houses along the sea of life, to warn succeeding generations 
of their fate, anil to teach them to avoid the rocks and quicksands of error and 
guilt on which they were wrecked. In no history is this purpose so well ac- 
complished as in that of Rollin, a handsome edition of which has just been 
Issued by Applegate &. Co.— 2fews. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



The Spectator, 



By Addison, Steele, etc., 1 vol. royal 8vo., 750 pages, with portrait of 
Addison. Sheep, spring back, marble edge. 

The numerous calls for a complete and cheap edition of this valuable 
work, have induced us to newly stereotype it, in this form, corresponding in 
style and price with our other books. Its thorough revisions have been com- 
mitted to competent hands, and will be found complete. 

There is no work in the English language that has been more generally 
read, approved, and appreciated than The Spectator. It is a work that 
can be perused by persons of all classes and conditions of society with equal 
pleasure and profit. 

" One hundred and forty years a°ro, when there were no daily newspapers 
nor periodicals, nor cheap fictions for the people, the Spectator had a daily 
circulation in England. It was witty, pithy, tasteful, and at times vigorous, 
and lashed the vices and follies of the age, and inculcated many useful les- 
eons which would have been disregarded from more serious sources. It was 
widely popular." — Central Christian Herald. 

" Applega.te & Co., 43 Main street, have just published, in a handsome 
octavo volume of 750 pages, one of the very best classics in our language. 
It would be superfluous at this day to write a line in commendation of this 
work."— Cin. Com. 

" There are few works, if any, in the English language that have been 
mo-re highly appreciated and generally read than the Spectator. It is in gen- 
eral circulation, and continues a popular work for general reading. The 
chaste style of its composition, and purity of its diction, has placed it high 
in rank among the English classics. "—£2. Louis Republican. 

"It is a source of general satisfaction to hear of the republication of a 
work of such standard merit as the Spectator. In these days, when the press 
teems with the issue of ephemeral publications, to subserve the purpose of 
an hour, to enlist momentary attention, and leave no improvement on the 
mind, or impression on the heart — it is a cause of congratulation to see, now 
and then, coming trom the press such works as this ; to last as it should, so 
long as a pure taste is cultivated or esteemed." — Cincinnati Gazette. 

" Criticism upon the literary merits of the Spectator would be rather late 
and superfluous at the present lime. Steele, Addison and Swift are above 
criticism. This edition is gotten up in style and form that will make it pecu- 
liarly acceptable to the admirers of English literature. It is bound in one 
volume, with copious notes of the contributors prefixed. The type is clear 
and elegant, the paper $*ood, and the binding excellently suitable for the li- 
brary." — Cincinnati Daily Times. 

" Amid the rush and whirl of this locomotive and high pressure aere — amid 
the jfhnost breathless rage for the light and flimsy effusions with which the 
laboring press is inundating the world, Addison, the immortal Addison, — 
one of the most beautiful, chaste, elegant, and instructive, as well as piecing 
writers of the English language, may be pushed aside or overlooked for a 
time, but the healthful mind, satiated with the frothy productions of the 
times, will again return to such authors as Addison, and enjoy with renewed 
zest the pleasing converse of such pare and noble spirits." — MethodUt 
Monthly. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



The Tattler and Guardian, 



By Addison. Steele, etc., with an account of the authors, by Thoa. Bab- 
bington Macau lay. Illustrated with steel plate engravings. Complete in 
one volume, with notes and general indexes. 

Tattler and Guardian.— Addison and Steele never wrote anything that 
was not good ; but superlatively so is the Tattler and Guardian. In con- 
junction with the Spectator, (and neither of them is complete without the 
other) it affords a full view of English, as well as Continental Society, one 
hundred and fifty years ago, and in a quaint and classic style vividly portrays 
the follies and vices of the age. With pleasant humor, keen wit, and bitter 
sarcasm, it overflows, and is entirely free from the nonsense and common- 
place tvvaddie and toadyism of much of the popular writings of the present 
day. It would be superfluous for us to say that the style in which it is writ- 
ten is chaste, classic and unique. No Library of Belles-Lettres is complete 
without it, and no scholar can appreciate the beauties of the English lan- 
guage until he has thoroughly studied the diction of Addison and Steele. 

The splendid series of* articles contained in these journals, having such 
authors as Addison. Steele and their associates, living through a century and 
a h-ilf, and still retaining all their freshness, can not but make them in their 
present shiipe sought after in every enlightened community.— Cincinnati 
Daily Times. 

Thk Tattler and Guardian, whose capital Essays by Addison, Steele, 
Tickell and others, lonsr since placed the volume in theforemost rank among 
the English classics- — Cincinnati Press. 

They were and are yet models of composition, almost indispensable to a 
thorough knowledge of Belles-Lettres- — Cincinnati Enquirer. 

The writings of Addison, Steele and their associates have rarely been is" 
Bued in a form so well adapted for the general circulation which they deserve. 
—Cincinnati Gazette. 

As a collection of rich essays, in beautiful English, The Tattler needs no 
commendation from our pen. — Ohio State Journal. 

The publishers have done the public a good service by placing this foun' 
tain of pure thought and pure English in a convenient form. — Western 
Christian Advocate. 

No library is complete unless the Tattler and Guardian is on its shelves, 
and every man of literary tastes regards its possession as a necessity. — Ma- 
tonic Review. 

Tattler and Ghardian. — Who has not heard of Addison and Steele, and 
where is the scholar or lover of English Literature who has not read the 
Spectator ? It is a part of English literature that we could not afford to lose. 
The writings of such men as Addison and Steele are good in any age. The 
book now before us is by the same authors.— Ledger. 

Among all the flippant publications of the present day, in which there is 
an awful waste of paper and ink, it is refreshing to see a reprint of a work of 
standard merit such as the Tattler and Guardian. The criticisms of over a 
century have only more clearly pointed out its merits and established ita 
reputation. — Democrat. 



APPLEGATE & CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. 



Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; 

Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the beginning of the Eigh- 
teenth Century, in which the rise, progress and variations of Church Power 
are considered in their connection with the Stat ; of learning and philoso- 
phy, and the political history of Europe during that period. Continued to 
the year 1826. by Charles Coote, LL. D., 8U6 pages, quarto, sheep, spring 
back, marbled edge. 

This edition forms the most splendid volume of Church History ever issued 
from the American Press ; is printed with large type, on elesant paper, and 
altogether forms the most accessible and imposing history of the Church that 
is before the public. — Gospel Herald. 

This great standard history of the Church from the birth of Christ, has just 
been issued in a new dress hy the extensive publishing house of Apple^ate 
&. Co. Nothing need be said by us in relation to the merits or reliability of 
Mo=heim's History ; it has long borne the approving seal of the Protestant 
world. — Masonic Review. 

To the Christian world, next to the golden Bible itself, in value, is an accu- 
rate, faith "ul. and life-like delineation of the rise and progress, the develop- 
ment and decline of Ihe Christian Church in all its varieties of sects and de- 
nominations, their tenets, doctrines, manners, customs and government 
Such a work is Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. Like " Bollin's History 
of the Ancients.'" it is the standard, and is too well known to need a word of 
comment. — Advocate. 

But little need be said of the history as a standard work. It has stood first 
on the list of Church histories, from the day it became known to scholars, 
down to. the present lime ; and there is but little probability that any new one 
Will soon set it aside. — Beauty of Holiness. 

No Church History, particularly as it respects the external part of it, was 
ever written, which was more full and reliable than this ; and indeed, in all 
respects, we opine, it will be a long time before it will be superseded. — Lite- 
rary Casket. 

Who has not felt a desire to know something more of the early history, rise 
and progress of the Christian Church than can usually be found in the po- 
litical histories of the world ? Mosheim's Church History, just published by 
our Western Publishing House of Applegate & Co., contains ju«t the infor- 
mation which every believer in Christianity so much needs. It fills the space 
hitherto void in Christian Literature, and furnishes a most valuable book for 
the student of Christianity. Every clergyman and teacher, every Sunday 
School and household, should have a copy of Mosheim's Church History. — 
Herald. 

The work is printed on beautiful white paper, clear large type, and is bound 
in one handsome volume. No man ever sat down to read Mosheim in so 
pleasing a dress. What a treat is such an edition to one who has been study- 
ing the elegant work in the small, close print of other editions. Any one woh 
has not an ecclesiastical history should secure a copy of this edition. It is 
not necessa-y for us to say anything in relation to the merits of Mosheim's 
Church History. For judgment, taste, candor, moderation, simplicity, learn- 
ing, accuracy, order, and comprehensiveness, it is unequaled. The author 
spared no pains to examine the original authors and " genuine sources of 
sacred history," and to scrutinize all the facts presented by the light of the 
»' pure lamps of antiquity." — Telescope, Dayton, O. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



Lorenzo Dow's Complete Works, 

The Dealings of God, Mm and the Devil, as exemplified in the Life, Expe- 
rience and Travels of Lorenzo Dow, in a period of over half a century, 
together with his Polemic and Miscellaneous Writings complete. To which 
is added, THE VICISSITUDES OF LIFE, by Peogy Dow, with *n In- 
troductory Essay, by John Dowling, D. D , of New York, MAKING THE 
BEST AND MOST COMPLETE EDITION PUBLISHED. I vol. 8vo., 
library binding, spring back, marbled edge. 

Notices of the Press. 

Several editions of the Life and Works of Lorenzo Dow have been issued 
by different publishers, but the mosc complete and accurate is the one pub- 
lished by Applegate & Co., Cincinnati. After perusing it and reflecting on 
the good he accomplished not mentioned in this volume, we came to the 
conclusion that, if for the last hundred years, every minister had been a 
Lorenzo Dow, the whole world would have been civilized, if not christian- 
ized, some time since. 

" No wonder that he was finally crucified at Georgetown, D. C , if it is 
true, as reported in some quarters, he was poisoned by some enemies who 
followed him to his retreat." 

" Lorenzo Dow was not ' one,' but • three ' of them, a St. Paul in bless- 
ing souls- a Washington in seeking the best interests of his country, and a 
Howard in getting people * out of the prison ' of conservatism and oppres- 
sion." 

" We decide {ex cathedra) that one of the most interesting works ever 
placed on our tible is 'The Complete Works of Lorenzo Do»v,' embracing 
his travels in Europe and America, his polemic and poetical writings and 
• Journey of Life,' by his wife Peggy, who heroically accompanied him in 
many of his peregrinations." 

" Full as an egg is of meat, so was Lorenzo Dow of sparkling wit and 
genuine good humor. He overflowed with anecdote like a bubbling fountain 
in a sandy basin, and was never at a loss for a good and lively story where- 
with to illustrate his subject and engage the attention of his hearers. His 
audience ever listened with breathless attention, and drank in his sayings 
with wondrous admiration and reverence. By some he was regarded as one 
of those special messengers the Almighty sent in times of great dearth of 
godliness and piety, to wake up the slumbering church. He evidently had 
his mission, and thousands now living throughout the land can testify as to 
how he filled it. 

" His life was one continuous scene of adventure and anecdote, ever vary- 
ing, and full of the life-giving power of enthusiasm. Spotless in purity, 
faultless in heart/and wholly devoted to the cause he had espoused — the 
cause of Christ." 

*' This is the best octavo edition of Dow's complete works now published. 
The writings of this remarkable and eccentric man have been before the pub- 
lic for years. They have been read by thousands. If not altogether unex- 
ceptionable, they embrace many wholesome truths. Vice in all its forms is 
rebuked with characteristic severity : his bitter sarcasm and cutting wit are 
employed in niany instances to good effect. His wife sqems to have been a 
kindred spirit, and both, with all their peculiar eccentricities, no doubt were 
truly devoted Christians, doing what they sincerely believed to be for the 
spiritual good of their fellow-heings, and the glory of God. Those who hare 
not read this book will find sufficient to instruct and interest them." 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 

Guizot's Gibbon's History of the Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire; 

A new edition, revised and corrected throughout, preceded by a preface, and 
accompanied by notes, critical and historical, relating principally to the 
propagation of Christianity. By M. F. GnzoT, Minister of Public Instruc 
tion for the kingdom of France. The Preface, Notes and Corrections trans- 
lated from the French expressly for this edition — with a notice of the life 
and character of Gibbon, and Watson's reply to Gibbon. In 2 vols, impe- 
rial £vo., sheep, spring back, marble edge. 

We are pleased to see a republication of Guizot's Gibbon, with the notes, 
which have never before been republished in English. Gibbon, so far as we 
know, stands alone in filling up the historic <1 space between the Roman Cas- 
sars and the revival of literature. — Cincinnati Chronicle. 

While there are numbers of Historians of the early days of the great Em- 
pire, Gibbon stands almost alone as the historiau of its fall. The present 
edition, with the notes of Guizot, is a treasure of literature that will be highly 
prized. 

The vices of the Roman Empire, that like the vipers in the bosom of Cle- 
opatra, caused her destruction, are traced from their first inception, and should 
act as beacon-lights on the shores of time, to guide oiher nations that are 
following in her footsteps. 



Altisonant Letters, 



Letters from Squire Pedant in the East, to Lorenzo Altisonant, an emigrant 
to the West, for the Benefit of the Inquisitive Young. 1 vol. 12mo., cloth- 

The publishers of the following letters do not present them as models of 
6tyle, but as a pleasant means of obtaining the meaning of the greater part of 
the unusual words of the English language, on the principle of "association 
of ideas." In the column of a dictionary there is no connection between the 
definition of words, consequently, the committed definitions are soon lost to 
the pupil. By placing in such a juxtaposition as to form some kind of sense> 
the learner will the more readily retain the meaning of the word' used 
To the Youngsters. By the Author. 

Young Friends:— Some one has said "that words not understood are like 
uncracked nuts — the lusciousness of the kernel is not enjoyed." Believing 
this to be so, and thinking that there are now many uncracked nuts in the 
English language, the author went up into old John Walker's garret, anA 
gathered 'Mots" of old and hard nuts, and brought them down for you, and 
then he went into old Noah's ark — he means old Noah Webster's dictionary 
— and gathered many more, and by the assistance of Mr. Altisonant, placed 
them in the "letter basket," with the hammer, the dictionary, laid side by 
side. Will you take up the hammer and crack the nuts, and enjoy the ker- 
nel ? Try it. Your friend, S. K. HOSIIOL'K. 

A rare book this, and rare amusement it will afford to the reader. — Daily 
Times. 



APPLEGATE & CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. 



Farmer's Hand Book; 



Bain?: a full and complete Guide for the Farmer and Emigrant, comprising 
the clearing of Forest and Prairie land, Gardening and Farming generally. 
Farriery, and the prevention and cure of diseases, with copious Hints, Re- 
ceipts and Tables. 12mo., cloth. 

The publishers are gratified that they are enabled t;> satisfy the universal 
demand for a volume which comprises a mass of superior material, derived 
from the most authentic sources and protracted research. 

The contents of the " Farmer's H and Book " comprise about fifteen hun~ 
dred points of information respecting the management of a Farm, from the 
first purchase and clearing of the land, to all its extensive details and de- 
partments. The necessary conveniences, the household economy, the care 
of animals, the preservation of domestic health, the cultivation of fruits, with 
the science and taste of the arborisfe, and the production of the most advan- 
tageous articles for sale, are all displayed in a plain, instructive and mos- 
satisfactory manner, adapted peculiarly to the classes of citizens for whose 
use and benefit the work is specially designed. Besides a general outline of 
the Constitution, with the Naturalization and Preemption Laws of the United 
States, there is appended a Miscellany of 120 pages, including a rich variety 
of advice, hints and rules, the study and knowledge of which will unspeak- 
ably promote both the comfort and welfare of all who adopt and practice 
them. 

The Farmer's Hand Book is a handsomely bound work of 478 pages. It 
treats of farming in all its various depai-tments, buildings, fences, house- 
hold and culinary arrangements, diseases of Horses, Cattle, Sheep, Swine, 
etc.. etc.- and gives the remedies suited to each It has a valuable treatise on 
the use of medicine- with hints for the preservation of health and the treat- 
ment of wounds, accidents, etc., and also contains a vast amount of valuable 
receipts, tab'es and facts, to aid the male and female in this important busi- 
ness of life. No farmer can fail to be benefited by reading this work. — Valley 
Agriculturist. 

Though this book has been before the public a few years, it will prove a 
useful, instructive tre itise on a great variety of interesting subjects to the 
farmer and emigrant to a new country. Its hinti upon farming interests 
must be valuable to the agriculturist. Agriculture is now to a very great 
extent reduced to a science, and all the reliable information touching that 
branch of industry is appreciated by a large portion of the farming popula- 
tion. This work will be of great service to them. — (PFallon Polytechnic 
Institute. 

" The Farmer's Hand-Book is a collection of facts, hints receipts, and 
really valuable information, which should be in the hands of every farmer in 
the land. We find in it directions for purchasing and clearing timber land, 
prairie farming, hints on the general management of a farm, for the con- 
struction of buildings and fences, a treatise on the dairy, also a household 
department, comprising all kinds of cookery." — ClarJcsnille Jeffersonian. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



Dick's Theology. 



Lectures on Theology. By the late Rev. Johv Dick, D. D., Minister of the 
United Associate Congregation, Grayfriar, Glasgow, and Professor of The- 
ology in the United Session Church. Published under the superintendence 
of his S>n. \V,th a Biographical Introduction. By an American Editor. 
With a Steel Portrait of Dr. Dick. 

*• We recommend this work in the very strongest terms to the Biblical stu- 
dent. It is, as a whole, superior to any other system of theology in our lan- 
guage. As an elementary hook, especially fitte 1 for those who are commenc- 
ing the study of divinity, it is unrivaled." — Christian Keepsake. 

" This is a handsome octavo of 601) pages, published in uniform style with 
the other viluible standard works of Applegate & Co. It contains a tho- 
rough and enlightened view of Christian Theology, in which the author pre- 
sents in beautiful, simple and forcible style, the evidences of authenticity of 
the sacred text, the existence and attributes of the Deity, the one only and 
unchangeable God Toe fill of man, and its consequences, and the restora- 
tion of the fallen through the intercession of the Crucified. It is one of the 
most simple and yet elevated of works devoted to sacred subjects " — Lite- 
rary Gasket. 

s * The lecturer, throughout, displays an extensive and a most accurate 
knowledge of the great variety of important topics which come before him. 
His system has all the advantages of fair proportion : there is nothing neg- 
lected, and nothing overlooked. His taste is correct and pure, even to se- 
verity ; nothing is admitted, either in language or in m itter, that can not 
establish the most indisputable right to be so ; hence, he is alike lucid in his 
arrangement, and perspicuous in style." — Christian, Instructor. 

" We consider these Lectures as no small accession to our Theological 
literature, an I would cordially recommend fiem to the perusal, not merely 
of the professional divine, but also to the general reader. They are ch irac- 
terized throughout by a clear and perspicuous style, by tasteful illustration, 
by fervent, manly piety, by cindor and perfect fairness in stating the opin- 
ions of all from whom he differs and by a modest and firm defense of ' the 
t.uth as it is in Jesus.' The most intricate doctrines are unfolded with admi- 
rable tact." — Presbyterian Review. 

" Few men of the present day appear to have united more requisites for 
the office of Theological Lecturer. Asa theologian; we are told, Dr. Dick 
was distinguished by the strictness with which he adhered to the great Pro- 
testant ru?e of mi'iing the Bible, in its plain meaning, the source of his reli- 
gious cree 1, and the basis of his theological system. The intellectual excel- 
lence for which he was chiefly remarkable, was that of conceiving clearly ; 
which, when united, as in him. with acuteness and a sound judgment, must 
be peculiarly Useful in theological investigations. T<> these high requisites, 
he added a very correct taste, dignified manners, gentleness of heart, and 
fervent piety, such as rendered him an object of affectionate veneration to his 
pupils, and of no ordinary .ttachment to his friends. We can not conclude 
this notice of so valuable a work, without cordially recommending it to our 
readers."— Eclectic Magazine. 

"On every subject which he discusses, Dr. Dick may safely be trusted as a 
Scriptural guide. He always thinks for himself, displaying a mind of much 
acuteness, enriched with extensive information, imbued with the deepest reve- 
rence for the authority of scripture. His taste is pure, ami his style obvi* 
ously formed upon the finest models," — Christian Journal. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



Gathered Treasures 



From the Mines of Literature. 

Containing Tales, Sketches, Anecdotes and Gems of Thought, Literary anfl 

Moral, Pleasing and Instructive. Illustrated with steel engravings. 8vo^ 

embossed sheep, colored, marbled edge. 

To furnish a volume of miscellaneous literature, both pleasing and instruc 
five, has been the object of the editor in compiling this work, as well as to 
supply, to some extent at least, the place that is now occupied by publications 
which few will deny, are of a questionable moral tendency. 

It has been the intention to make this volume a suitable traveling and fire- 
side companion, profitably engaging the leisure moments of the former, and 
adding an additional charm to the glow of the latter ; to blend amusement 
with instruction, pleasure with profit, and to present an extensive garden of 
vigorous and useful plants, and beautiful and fragrant flowers, among which 
perchance, there may be a few of inferior worth, though none of utter inutil 
ity. While it is not exclusively a religious book, yet it contains no article 
that may not be read by the most devoted Christian. 

" How important to phce within the reach of the people such books that 
will instruct the mind, cheer the heart, and improve the understanding- 
books that are rich in the three grand departments of human knouled/e — 
literature, morals and religion. Such a book is ' Gathered Treasures.' We 
can cheerfully recommend it to all." — Intelligencer. 

" A book of general merit, diversified yet truly rich and valuable in its 
interests; thrilling in many of its incidents; instructive in principle, and 
strictly moral in its tendency."— Cin. Temperance Organ. 

" This is both an instructive and entertaining book, frora which many a 
sparklins gem of thought may be culled. Its vast range of subjects affords 
b'>th pleasure and Instruction. It is a book of pastime, and time not usually 
lost in its perusal."— St. Louis Democrat. 

" Gathered Treasures from the Mine* of Literature." — As its 
title imports, it is a suitable traveling and fireside companion, profitably en- 
gagi ng the leisure moments of the former, and adding an additional charm 
to the cheerful glow of the hitter. It blends amusement with instruction and 
pleasure with profit.— Freeport {III.) Bulletin. 

G.ATHKRF.D TRE\srRES FROM THE MlNES OF LITERATURE — The above 1*3 

the title of an excellent work now publishing by the well-known firm of Ap- 
plegate & Co. It is certainly one of rare merit, and well calculated for a 
rapid and general circulation. Its contents present an extensive variety of 
subjects, and these not only carefully but judiciously selected and arranged 
in appropriate departments. It is a work of pleasing and instructive char- 
acter, free from all sectarian bias and impure tendencies, and designed to sup- 
plant, in part, the light literature, or what is more appropriate, the ephem- 
eral trash of the day. Its contents baye also been highly spoken of by men 
of distinguished literary acumen, both Editors and Ministers of various 
Christian denominations. We cheerfully recommend it to the attention and 
patronage of the puo'.ic. — Cincinnati Times. 



APPLEGATE & CO/S PUBLICATIONS. 



Webb's heemason's Monitor; 

By Thomas Smith Webb. A new edition, printed on fine paper, large and 
clear type, beautifully and symbolically illustrated— containing all the 
Decrees from Entered Apprentice to Knights of Malta, together with a 
Sketch of the Origin of Masonry. Government of the Fraternity, Ceremony 
of Opening and CI is : n=r the Lodxe, with fuil directions for Institutin? and 
Installing all Masonic Bodies. To which is added A MONITOR OF THE 
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE, containing ample Illustrations of 
all the Grades from Secret Mister to Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 
including the series of Eleven Grades known as tie Lvkffable Degrees, 
arranged according to the work practiced under the jurisdiction of tne Su- 
preme Council of the Tuirty-third Degree. By E. i'. Carson. 

Cincinnati, 0. 
Gentlemen : — Having carefully examined your' new edition of " Webb's 
Freemason's Monitor," we find it to correspond with ihe system of work as 
now adopted in all the Masonic bodies in the Uniied States, and we take 
great pleasure in recommending it to the Craft throughout the country, as 
being the most useful and well arranged practical Manual of Freemasonry 
that we have yet seen. 

D. H. HEARS, W. M of N. C Harmony Lodge, No. 2 
WILLIAM SEE, W. M. of Miami Lod^e, No. 46. 

J. M. PARKS. W M. of La'avette Lodge, No. 81. 

HOWARD MATTHEWS, W. M. of Cincinnati Lodge, No. 133. 

C. MOORE W. M. of McMillan Lod ? e, No. 141. 

E. T, CARSON. W. M. of Cynthia Lodsre, No. loo. 
ANDREW PFIRRMANN, W. M. of Han<elmann Lodge. No. 208. 
WM. C MfDDLETON, H. P. of Cincinnati R. A. Chanter, No. 2. 
CHAS. BROWN. H. P. of McMillan R. A. Chapter, No. 19. 

C. F. HANSELMANN, G. C. of Cincinnati Encampment, No. 3. 

* * * The admirable arrangement of the emblems of Masonry in your 
edition of Webb's Freemason's Monitor, makes the work complete, and I am 
much pleased to say it meets mv entire approv •!. 

HORACE M. STOKES, Grand Master of Ohio. 
The language, charges, etc., I have used in all my Masonic work, and 
would not change under any circumstances. I freely recommend the 
M Monitor " to be adopted and used in my jurisdiction. 

SOLOMON P. BAYLESS, Grand Master of Masons in Indiana. 
Gentlemen' : — I have looked over your " Webb's Freemason's Monitor,'' 
and am much pleased with the general arrangement of our Rituals, and the 
several Lectures, Charges and Lessens ; and do m )st cheerfully recommend 
the ''Monitor" as the best hand-book of Masonry I hive ever seen. 

Yours respectfully, JACOB GRAFF, P G. H. P. 

Of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the State of Ohio. 

I have carefully examined the Webb and Carson Monitors which you hayo 
just published, and feel constrained to say that in its mechanical execution 
and arrangement it will add much to the already hi?h reputation of yours as 
a publishing house. W. B. DODDS, P. G. M. of Ohio. 

We can not too strongly recommend to the Craft the above named book- 
it is an indispensable work to Royal Arch Masons particul uly, bat no Free- 
mason of any degree ought to be without a copy. It is a stand ird Masonic 
work of the highest reputation. — Mirror and Keystone^ Philadelphia. 



Elements of the German Language; 

A Practical Manual for acquiring the art of reading, speaking and composing 
German. By Theodore Soden, Professor of the German Language and 
Literature, at the Woodward and Hughes' High Schools of Cincinnati. 
1 vol. I2ino., half cloth. 

From A. H. McGuffey, Esq. 
" The work is very complete in embracing all the more important gram- 
matical rules and terms (with copious exercises under each), and omitting 
only such as )>y their minuteness and complication, would tend rather to con- 
fuse than assist the beginner. It everywhere bears the marks of most care- 
ful prepaiation, and is evidently the work of an experienced practical 
teacher." 

Prom Judge J. B. Stallo. 
" Professor Soden has most skillfully selected and arranged his exercises. 
The book, though of unpretending form, lias by no means disappointed the 
expectations which the eminence of Prof. Soden as a scholar and a teacher 
had caused me to entertain, and 1 cheerfully recommend it as the most valu- 
able introduction'to the study of German which has fallen under my notice-'' 
From Rev. William Nast. 
" Mr. Soden 's work is truly superior, original and the fruit of successful 
expeiience in teaching. A peculiar recommendation i f it is, that the student 
can make immediate practical use tff every lesson he learns, for instance, one 
of the primary lessons consists in a concise and entertaining dialogue on the 
principal grammatical rules. The subject-matter of the exercises is chosen 
with great care, in view of gradual progression, and refers not to imaginary, 
useless objects, but to the real concerns, relations, business and interests of 
social and civil American life, and is, therefore, interesting for the student. 
Of especial use are also the strictly progressive exercises in translating from 
English into German." 

From Ph. J. Klund, Prof, of Modern Languages at Farmer's College, Ham- 
ilton County, Ohio. 
" If a long experience and numerous experiments crive some claim to a 
downright opinion, we do not hesitate to pronounce this book the best, the 
most practical, the most .judicious, and within the limits of a school book, the 
most complete English-German Grammar yet published." 
From Rev. Wm. G. W. Lewis, Prof, at the Wesleyan Female College, Cin'ti« 
" I particularly admire the easy gradations by which the student is led on 
from that which is simple and readily understood, to that which is more dif- 
ficult. I find in it an unusual amount of that which is ordinarily the un- 
written grammar of the language, that part I mean which is usually left to 
the skill and care of the student, and which, on that very account, is often 
denied to the student. 

I therefore consider your work well calculated to secure the great *md at 
whieh'l know well you have aimed in its preparation, namely, a compre- 
hensive and schelarly mastery of the German language." 
From Dr. J. S. Unzicker, Cincinnati. 
" This work has been compiled with great care and judgment, and is far 
more comprehensive and practical than any similar work I know of. It is 
well adapted for the use of our High Schools, and especially for those of 
English parentage, who wish to study the German language." 



Memoirs 4 the Life of Dr. Darnel Drake, 

Physician , Professor and Author, with notices of the early settlement of Cin- 
cinnati, a nd some of its pionetr citizens, with a steel portrait of Dr. Drake. 
ByE. D. Mansfield. LL. D. 1 vol. 12mo. 

Dr. Drake was an extraordinary man- Talents of no ordinary character, 
developed by unceasing industry, raised him from comparative obscurity and 
placed him amongst the most eminent and scientific men. He was at the same 
time one of the most sincere, humble, spiritua' disciples of Christ. As an 
eminent Physician and as a man of general scientific attainments, he has con- 
tributed largely to the stock of useful knowledg e. As a Christian, he was a 
"burning and shining light."— £t. Lows Republican. 

We are deeply indebted to Mr. Mansfield and Messrs. Applegate & Co., for 
this timely book, putting on record the life and wonderful exertions of one 
whom we have ever been taught to cherish with sincerest admiration while 
living, and for whose memory in death we cultivate the most profound vene- 
ration.— Templar's Magazine. 

Medical science in the West is largely indebted to Dr. Drake. Almost self- 
educated, he anived at Cincinnati at the age of fifteen, and was there instruc- 
ted in the art of healing by Dr. Goforth, a physician of the old school. Drake 
was the first student of medicine in Cincinnati, and was so apt a pupil that at 
the age of eighteen he became his instructor's partner. — Hew Yorlc Times. 

This will be an acceptable book everywhere in the West, as a record of the 
enterprise and successful labors of one of the most eminent men and earliest 
settlers.— Cincinnati Times. 

Christianity 

As exemplified in the Conduct of its Sincere Professors. 

By the Rev. W. Secker. 12mo., embossed cloth. 

This is a book of rare merit full of thought-exciting topics, and is particu- 
larly valuable as an aid to Christian devotion. 

This is a reprint of a quaint old English book, entitled " The None-Such 
Professor in his Meridian Splendor." It abounds in pithy sentences and 
suggestive expressions, and should be read by such as wish to put a spur to 
thought. — Madison Courier. 

This is a book of more than ordinary merit, and may be made a valuable 
assistant to the Christian, as he strives to grow in grace. It has its founda- 
tion on Mat. v. 47, "What do ye more than others." — Beauty of Holiness. 

This is a book every professor of religion ought to procure and read. We 
predict for it a large circulation and a useful mission among men. — BrooJc- 
ville American. 

Popular Christianity and Christianity exemplified by its sincere professors 
are two entirely different things, and we hazard nothing in saying that a stu- 
dious perusal of this little book will add its share in producing the latter. 
From Rev. W. R. Babcock. 

This is a most charming w^rk on practical religion. It is a treatise of more 
than ordinary merit as an aid to Christian virtue and devotion. It abounds 
with living thought, and may be read at all times with religious profit. 



Chain of Sacred Wonders; 



Or a connected view of Scripture scenes and incidents, from the Creation to 
the end of the last epoch. By Rev. S. A. Latia, A. M., M. D. Illustra- 
ted with two steel plates, and a number of wood cuts. 1 vol. 8vo. cloth, 
marbled edge. 

We believe (his work is eminently calculated to create an additional inter- 
est and a more extensive reading of that invaluable book from which its sub- 
jects are taken. It is illustrated with beautiful engravings, and ts gotten up 
in the best style of our publishers. — Daily Commercial. 

We have examined this work with <rreat satisfaction. It is beautifully ex- 
ecuted on fine white paper, the printing is in the neatest style of the art ; but 
the gr^at value is found in the contents. The subjects are well selected and 
executed in a style woithy the theme of " Sacred Wonders." We recommend 
It to our readers under a belief that the same amount of equally entertaining 
and useful reading is not likely to be obtained elsewhere for the same money. 
— Medical Gazette,. 

The volume mentioned above is a work full of good reading, by an accom- 
plished and scholarly writer. It is well adapted to the Christian family cir- 
cle, to Sabbath school and religious libraries. The various sketches are 
admirably conceived, and written in a style of simple purity, which is very 
attractive. The design of the author is to attract the attention of youth to 
the Bible, and wiih that view he has endeavored to make his work an instru- 
ment of much good. It is, indeed, an excellent book.— Daily Times. 



Methodist Family Manual 



Containing the Doctrines and Moral Government of the Methodist Church, 
with Scripture proofs ; accompanied with appropriate questions, to which 
is added a systematic plan for studying the Bible, rules for the government 
of a Christian family, and a brief catechism upon experimental religion. 
By Rev. C. B. Lovell. ] vol. 12mo., cloth. 

This work supplies a want which has long been felt among the members of 
the Methodist Church. As a family manual, and aid to the means of srace 
and practical duties of Christianity, it is certainly a valuable work. It also 
contains the Discipline of the Church, with Scriptural proofs, and appropri- 
ate questions to each chapter. 

This is a new work just issued gy the enterprising firm of Applegate & Co. 
8uch a book is an essential aid in sowing the seeds of virtue in the hearts of 
the young. — BrooJccille American. 

Every intelligent member of the Methodist Church will, we are sure, greet 
with joy the appearance of a book so much needed, and so comprehensive in 
its character, as the Methodist Family Manual, by the Rev. C. R. Lovell Mr. 
Lovell has entered upon his subject with a full know ledge of the requirements 
of a Christian Family, and especially of one attached to the Methodist 
Church. Commencing with the Articles of Faith as the ground-work and 
foundation of the Christian character, he builds upon them a structure of 
Christian living, which is designed to exemplify the beauty of holiness in our 
d <ily walk and conversation. We are sure it will be an excellent aid to the 
humble Christian, in drawing bis attention to the subjects which are nearest 
to his heart, and which should govern daily walk and conversation. Read it 
all who wish to wa;k as consistent Christians. — Western Methodist 



APPLEGATE & CO, S PUBLICATIONS. 



Speeches and Writings of Hon, T. F, Marshall, 

Edited by W. L. Barre, Esq. This work contains all of Mr. Marshall's finest 
efforts since 183 - 2. His able report on Banking and Paper Currency — his 
speech against John Quincy Adams in Congress— his memorable Slavery 
Letters— trie celebrated Eulogy on Richard H. Menifee— the Louisville 
Journal Letter — and his great Temperance Speech— will all be found in 
the work. Besides these, it. contains his entire Old Guard Articles, and 
many other productions of equal imere't and ability. The literary taste 
and ability of the e litor are sufficiently known and appreciated to require 
no remarks from us. He has carefully prepared appropriate headings, 
explanatory of each article in the work, and a highly interesting Biograph- 
ical Sketch of Mr. Marshall. 1 vol. 8vo., with splendid Portrait of Mr. 
Marshall. 

As a popular Orator of unrivaled powers and a writer of unsurpassed abil- 
ity, Mr. Marshall stands foremost among the prominent men of his day. The 
great reputation he has acquired both as a speaker and writer, his long and 
active identity with and complete knowledge of the political and social his- 
tory of our country, have created a wide-spread desire to see his numerous 
speeches and writings on various subjects in a permanent form. We feel 
confident that any one who has heard Mr. Marshall speak or read his writings 
will appreciate their power and admire their beauty. 

It is not necessary to -puff this work ; it will be sought by every man of 
literary taste in the country. It will prove a valuable contribution to our 
standard literature, and the fame of the author will go down to posterity as 
the purest of our American classics.— Frankfort Commonwealth. 

The work contains all those famous creations of genius that have rendered 
Mr. Marshall so remarkable as an orator and a man of genius, and is decided- 
ly one of the most interesting books that has ever been published. — Mays- 
ville Eagle. 

The reputation which Mr. Marshall has acquired as an eloquent orator and 
forcible writer, renders this volume the object of almost universal desire. As 
a popular orator he stands at the head of the class of American writers, pos- 
sessing great powers of elocution, ripe scholarship, and the highest order of 
intellect.— Holding Green Gazette. 

We presume that very few persons will decline taking this work. It will 
be found exceedingly brilliant and powerful. It is the production of one of 
the master minds of the nation. Remarkable as Mr. Marshall is with his hu- 
mor and his wondrous flights of fancy, he is, we think, still more remarkable 
for his strong, deep sense and inexorable logic. — Louisville Journal. 

We have here a remarkable work. Tt consists of the speeches and writings, 
bo far as they can be collected, of one of the most gifted and remarkable men 
—the Hon. Thomos F. Marshall, of Kentucky.— Gin. Commercial. 

Mr- Marshall is well and widely known as one f.f the most eloquent orators 
of the United States, who has contributed, probably, as many fine gems of 
thought to the politic il literature of the d.ty as any man now upon the stage 
of public lif^. — Cincinnati E«quirer. 

It is a book of no ordinary nie its,. a production that will not cast a shade 
over the brightness of the author's reputation as a scholar, eloquent orator 
and talented writer.— St. Louis Republican. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



The Lord's Prayer Explained, 

In which the terms are defined and the text carefully considered. By Bey. 
A. A. Jimeson, M. D. 12inc, embossed cloth. 

This is a volume of rare excellence, written in the author's usual style of 
great beauty and elegance. It sparkles with gems of elevated thought, and 
abounds in the most happy illustrations of the great philosophical beatings 
of the several petitions of the Lord's Prayer". 

This work abounds in fervent piety, clothed in elegant and attractive lan- 
guage, and can not be read without pn fit. unless the reader is wholly lost to 
all the better feelings of his nature. — Jeffersonian. 

So simple is the verbal formation of this prayer and so simple are the seve- 
ral petitions it cont iins as they appear to the careless reader, that its profound 
depth and sublime instructions are t >o often overlooked. The book is a gem 
for a Christian's library. — Cincinnati Daily Times. 

This is an interesting practical exposition of the various petitions, etc., in 
the Lord's Prayer. It is well calculated to instruct the minds and quicken 
the hearts of Christians, and being a Western book — a home hook, it will, no 
doubt, have a wide circulation, and do much good.— Christian Herald. 

This is a charming and most excellent digest of this inimitable portion of 
God's Word.— St. Louis Sentinel. 

No person can read the book without profit, and infmcy, maturity and old 
a&e would alike be benefited by its perusal. — Masonic Review. 

It is just the volume to present to a child or a friend, in whose mind you 
would desire at once to incite and answer the question, "Teach me how to 
pray." — Journal and Messenger. 

Notes oil the Twenty-five Articles of Religion, 

As received and taught by Methodists in the United States, in which the doc- 
trines are carefully considered and supported by the testimony of the Holy 
Scriptures. By Rev. A. A. Jimeson, M. D. With a portrait of the author. 
12mo., embossed cloth. 

This book contains a clear exposition of the doctrines of the Articles, and 

of the errors against which the Articles were directed, written in a popular 

style, and divided into sections, for the purpose of presenting each doctrine 

and its opposite error in the most prominent manner. 

From the Rev. John Miller. 

It is a book for the Methodist and for the age — a religious multurn, in 
parvo— combining sound theology with practical religion. It should be 
found in every Methodist family. 

The style is clear and forcible, the illustrations ars just, the arguments 
sound. The author has performed a good and useluf work for all the Meth- 
odist bodies in the world ; as his book win furnish a very sat'sfactory exposi- 
tion of the leading doctrines of Methodism. — Western Christian Advocate. 

We have looked carefully over this volume, ami find it to be truly what it 
purports to be — Cincinnati Daily Times. 

A timely aid to the private Christian and to the pulpit.— Boston Herald 




Religious Courtship; 

Or Marriage on Christian principles. 

By Daniel Defoe, author of «« The Life and Adventures of Robinson Cru- 
soe," &c„ &c. 12mo., cloth. 

Who has not read Robinson Crusoe ? It has fascinated every boy, and 
stimulated his first taste for reading. Defoe has been equally happy in this 
present work, in interesting those of riper years, at an age (Shakspeare's age 
of the lover) when the mind is peculiarly susceptible of impressions. Altho' 
but few copies of this work have ever been circulated in America, yet it has 
a popularity in England co-extensive with his unparalleled " Crusoe." 

Young persons should by all means read it, and with particular attention, 
for it furnishes important directions relative to the most importantact of life. 
—Masonic Review. 

Who would have thought that the author of " Robinson Crusoe" could 
have written such a book as this ; but it seems he did so.— Jour, and Mess. 

We commend it to all whom it may concern. — Albany Argus. 

The subject is- one of great importance, and it is suggestive of valuable 
counsel.— Rev. Wm. R. Babcock. 

_ This book is of rare excellence. The best of instruction and counsel are 
given in a very attractive and pleasing form.— Miami Visitor. 

Universalism against itself; 

Or, an Examination and Refutation of the Principal Arguments claimed in 
support of the final Holiness and Happiness of Mankind. By Alexander 
Hall. Revised and corrected by W. P. Strickland, D. D. J2mo., cloth. 

This work contains a vigorous and earnest remonstrance asrainst the doc- 
trines of universal salvation. It is characterized by great perspicuity and 
directness. — Albany Argus. 

It is better than any volume of dpbates on the same subject, and should be 
in the hands of every minister, or others investigating the subject.— Beauty 
of Holiness. 

This volume is not only valuable to the general reader, but is excellent as 
a reference hook, and should be in the hands of every person who lives in a 
region troubled by the heresy of Universalism.— Xalhvilh and Louisville 
Christian Advocate. 

This work will certainly prove a burr in the hands of TJniversalists who take 
it up. It is that: species of warfare, by which combatants seize upon an ene 
my 'spark of artillery and turn it;>gainst them.— Journal and Messenger. 

Those who are almost persuaded to become Tniversalists, or have been en- 
tangled in their net, will do well to peruse this brok. It will, of course, do 
them no harm, even if Universalism be true.— Lady Kews. 
From Rev. W. R. Babcock. 

We can commend this book to those who wish to studv the subject upon 
which it treats. V, is a book for the people, devoid of metaphysical abstrac- 
tions to bewilder the mind and neutralize the force of Scripture authority. 



APPLEGATE & CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. 



Methodism Explained and Defended, 

By Rev. John S. Inskip. This is an exposition and defense of the polity of 
Methodism, giving a brief history of its introduction, in England and 
America, and contains a large anil valaable collection of statistics, connec- 
ted with the progress of the Church in various sections of the country. 
]2ino., embossed cloth. 

If any one without, or within, the compass of that branch of the Christian 
Church, wishes to know what Methodism really is, as viewed and taught by 
a progressive, liberal-minded man, this is the book to meet his wants. But 
what we especially like in this book, is the fearless and just estimate which 
the author puts upon such things as are deemed non-essential, in the econo- 
my of the Church. He has had the courage tc stand up and speak face to 
face with ecclesiastical authority, truths which others have only dared to 
think..— Dayton Journal. 

We have read this book with no ordinary interest, and, on the whole, re- 
joitfe in its appearance for several reasons — First, It is a concise and power- 
ful defense of every essential feature of Methodism, now a-days so much 
assailed by press and pulpit. Second, The general plan and character of 
the work are such, that it will be read and appreciated by the great masses of 
our people who are not familiar with more extended and elaborate works. 
Third, It is highly conservative and practical in its'tendencies. and will em- 
inently tend to create liberal views and mutual concession between the min- 
istry and laity for the good of the whole — a feature in our economy never to 
be overlooked. Fourth, This work is not written to advocate some local or 
neighborhood prejudice; neitherto confute some particular heresy or assault; 
but its views are peculiarly denominational and comprehensive, indicating 
the careful and wid^ observation of the author — free from bigotry and narrow 
prejudice.— Herald and Journal* 

Home for the Million ; 

Or, Gravel Wall Buildings. 

This is one of the most desirable books published, for all who contemplate 
erecting dwellings or out-houses, as the cost is not over one-third that of 
Brick or Frame, and quite as durable. Illustrated with numerous plans 
and cut of the author's residence, with full directions, thai every man may 
be his own builder. 12mo-, cloth. 

The process is simple and easy, and the walls once built, become as hard 
as common rock, and are impervious to the corrodings of time, and the 
peltings of the inclement storm, as well as the ravages of fire ; beside, it is 
said that this method of building is cheaper by one-half than brick, stone, or 
frame buildings, and the inner walls never get dump, as brick and stone often 
do. The plan has been successfully tested by the author and many others. — 
Railroad Record. 

This book is a treasure to every man who desires to have a house of his 
own, comfortable and durable, without costing a fortune. Every one intend- 
ing building should buy this hook : it will lie worth to him a hundred times 
its cost, before he is done building. — Masonic Review. 

Any man who had sufficient genius when a boy to mould a sand oven over 
his naked foot, can construct the walls of one of these houses. — Aurora 
Standard. 






APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



Peterson's Familiar Science; 

Or the scientific explanation cf common things. 

The pages of " Familiar Science " are its best recommendation. The com- 
mon phenomena of life are treated of in a simple and intelligible manner, 
which renders it both pleasing and instructive. In the family circle, as a 
text-book, it will form the basis of an hour's interesting conversation, and in 
the hands of the pupil it will be a valuable aid in the acquisition of useful 
knowledge. 

This is a work of rare merit. It should be in every family, for more infor- 
mation can be gained from it, than from half the books afloat. We most hear- 
tily commend it to the public. — Masonic Review. 

How often have we heard parents rebuke a child for asking what they term 
"silly questions," when they were unable to answer their artless inquiries. 
This little work is designed to explain many of these things. — Odd Lellow^a 
Literary Casket. 

The above manual of science should be in the hands of every youth in the 
land.— Parlor Magazine. 

About two thousand questions, on all subjects of general information, are 
answered in language so plain that all may understand it. — Home Gazette. 

This is really a valuable book, and furnishes more useful and practical in- 
formation than can be obtained from many volumes of profoundly abstruse 
works.— Genius of the West. 



Temperance Musician; 



A choice selection of original and selected Temperance Music, arranged for 

one, two, three or four voices, with an extensive variety of Temperance 

Songs. 1 vol. 32mo. 

It contains a great number of tunes and melodies which win the hearts of 
all the people, and which the boys in their happy moments sing and whistle 
as it were spontaneously. — Springfield Western Leader. 

We think it. so far as we have examined it, the best collection of songs we 
have seen. Some of them are exceedingly beautiful and affecting. — Tempe~ 
ranee Chart. 

We have examined the Temperance Musician, and have no hesitation in 
recommending it to the public as a valuable work. The tunes seem to be ex- 
cellent, and the songs are of the best. — Indianapolif Christian Record. 

This is a popular Temperance Song boo<, designed for the people, and 
should be in every family. We can/ecommend it to the patronage of all our 
temperance friends, as the best temperance songster, with music attached, wo 
have seen. — Cincinnati Commercial. 

It is the best collection of Temperance songs and music we have seen. — 
Summit Beacon. 

It strikes us as h-ing just the thing for the times and the vacuum it is in- 
tended to fill. Temperance songs, with music to suit, will do much to keep 
temperance feeling alive, particularly with lovers of music— Maine Law 
Messenger. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 



Universal Musician, 



Containing all sy»» 



By A. B. Pillmore, nuthor of Christian Psalmist, &c. 
terns of Notation. New edition, enlarged. 

The title, " Universal Musician." is adopted because the work is designed 
for everybody. Most of the Music is written in Harrison's Numeral System 
of Notation, because it is the most intelligible of all the different systems ex- 
tant ; and is, therefore, betier adapted to the wants of community. Music 
would be better understood and appreciated by the people generally, if it 
were all written in this way. For it is more easily written, occupies less 
space, is more quickly learned, more clearly understood, is less liable to be 
forgotten, and will answer all common purposes better tisan any other. But 
the world is full of music, written in various systems, and the learner should, 
acquire a knowledge of all the principal varieties of notation, so as to be able 
to read all music. To afford this knowledge to all, is the object of the present 
effort. 

The system of Numerals set forth in this work is, in our judgment, better, 
infinitely better, than the labor saving, but mind perplexing system of the 
transportation of syllables from tone to tone in the various ktys.—3Iel7iodist 
Protestant. 

It brings a knowledge of that sacred, yet hitherto mysterious science 
within the reach of those who have not the time, nor the means, to spare in 
acquiring a knowledge of music as taught on the old plan.— Central Times. 



Songs of ihe Church; 



Or Psalms and Hymns of the Protest. Episcopal Church. 

Arranged to appropriate melodies, with, a full Choral Service Book for the 
Protestant Episcopal Church— the first ever published— embracing all those 
parts of the Service usually sung. The Music harmonized in four parts, 
and printed side by side with the words to which it is to be sung, with spe- 
cial reference to the use of congregations with or without choirs. By Gto. 
C Davies. 1 vol. l*mo., 450 pages, embossed morocco, marble edge. 

This work is gotten up in the highest style of the art, from new stereotype 
plates from new type — the music part cast especially for it, printed on fine 
white paper, extra calendered, and superbly bound in embossed leather, in 
Tarious styles, to suit the t-iste of the most fastidious. 

Such books as the one before us, should be in the hands of every worship- 
er, especially when in the church ; and we have no doubt this will meet with 
a ready and extensive sale. It is just what was greatly needed. Call on Ap- 
plegate &. Co.. 43 Main street.— Masonic Review. 

We wish that we could hear that this valuable volume was placed in every 
pew, of every Church in this city, and throughout the Diocese — that we could 
learn that our congregations were all joining in singing as well as praying to 
the Lord, in lieu of listening to four feeble voices yclepta " quartette choir," 
" doing up" the praises of ihe sanctuary. 

"We regard the appearance of the present book as the commencement of a 
new era and we hope ere long to hear throughout the lemth and breadth of 
the land every Christian congregation joining in unison in singing the songs 
of praise which have expressed the ovations of the devout in all ages. 



APPLEGATE & CO. S- PUBLICATIONS. 



Lectures and Sermons 



Embracing the Sovereignty, Holiness, Wisdom, and Benevolence of God. 
The moral agency of man. considered as subject to and capable of moral 
government, all reconciled with the endless punishment of the finally im- 
penitent. The filial relationship of the believer to God. The final state of 
the righteous, and the world by the Gospel converted to God. By Rev. F. 
G. Black. Pastor of the First C. Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. 1 vol. 
l'2mo., cloth. 

These ably written lectures embrace the Sovereign character of God, and 
the agency of man as a ubject of moral government. They have lost none 
of their interest as revealed truths by having been published some years ago. 
— Christian Banner. 

This is a book that should be possessed and read in every ChristiM-a family. 
The sovereign power and goodness, the wisdom and benevolence of the Holy 
One. and man's relations to that Great Biing who has created and preserved 
him, are subjects that engage too little the attention of practical Christians. 
— Presbyterian. 



The Camp Meeting, 

And Sabbath School Chorister: 



A selection of Hymns suitable for Camp Meetings, and Sunday school exer- 
cises. By A. F. Cox. 32mo. 

The compiler, Bro. Cox, is a Methodist of the old school, and as a man of 
taste in the matter of poetry suited to Sabbath schools, c^mp meetings, and 
social worship, is unexcelled by any in the Western Country.— Banner of 
the Cross. 



Nightingale; 

Or Normal School Singer. 



Designed for schools, home circles and private practice, on a mathematically 

constructed system of notation. By A. D. Fillmore, author of Universal 

Musician, Christian Psalmist, Temperance Musician, &c. 

The book we deem a good one, and has an excellent selection of tunes, 

.many of which are great favorites with the music-loving public. Get a copy 

and practice the tunes. — Western Christian Advocate. 

Sacred Melodeon, 

A collection of Revival Hymns, 
sheep. 

This little work is a selection of Hymns and Social Songs, designed more 
especially for social worship and revival meetings. It contains many pieces 
of high poetic merit, and is admirably adapted to social worship. The pres- 
ent edition is revised, and a number of hymns of long-attested merit have 
been inserted, while a few, seldom if ever sung, have been omitted. 



Revised by Rev. R. M. Dalby. 32mo., 




X. 




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